Sensitivity of African easterly waves to boundary layer conditions

Abstract. A linearized version of the quasi-geostrophic model (QGM) with an explicit Ekman layer and observed static stability parameter and profile of the African easterly jet (AEJ), is used to study the instability properties of the environment of the West African wave disturbances. It is found that the growth rate, the propagation velocity and the structure of the African easterly waves (AEW) can be well simulated. Two different lower boundary conditions are applied. One assumes a lack of vertical gradient of perturbation stream function and the other assumes zero wind perturbation at the surface. The first case gives more realistic results since in the absence of horizontal diffusion, growth rate, phase speed and period have values of 0.5 day⁻¹, 10.83 m s⁻¹ and 3.1 day, respectively. The zero wind perturbation at the surface case leads to values of these parameters that are 50 percent lower. The analysis of the sensitivity to diffusion shows that the magnitude of the growth rate decreases with this parameter. Modelled total relative vorticity has its low level maximum around 900 hPa under no-slip, and 700 hPa under free slip condition.