Pauluis Olivier, Czaja Arnaud, Korty Robert
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012, USA.
Science. 2008 Aug 22;321(5892):1075-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1159649.
The global atmospheric circulation transports energy from the equatorial regions to higher latitudes through a poleward flow of high-energy and -entropy parcels and an equatorward flow of air with lower energy and entropy content. Because of its turbulent nature, this circulation can only be described in some averaged sense. Here, we show that the total mass transport by the circulation is twice as large when averaged on moist isentropes than when averaged on dry isentropes. The additional mass transport on moist isentropes corresponds to a poleward flow of warm moist air near Earth's surface that rises into the upper troposphere within mid-latitudes and accounts for up to half of the air in the upper troposphere in polar regions.
全球大气环流通过高能和高熵气块向极地的流动以及能量和熵含量较低的空气向赤道的流动，将能量从赤道地区输送到高纬度地区。由于其湍流性质，这种环流只能在某种平均意义上进行描述。在这里，我们表明，当在湿等熵面上进行平均时，环流的总质量输送比在干等熵面上进行平均时大两倍。湿等熵面上额外的质量输送对应于地球表面附近温暖潮湿空气向极地的流动，这种空气在中纬度地区上升到对流层上部，在极地地区对流层上部的空气中占比高达一半。
