عباس علی علی اکبری

Nocturnal low-level jets (NLLJs) occur frequently in many parts of the world. These low level jets are important in heat, dust, moisture and even insects transport for long distances; hence their characteristics have been the subject of many studies. There are many regions in mountainous areas of Iran that experience NLLJs for which the NLLJ over the Dashte Kavir (DK) is an important one that occur in summer months. The occurrence and other detailed characteristics of NLLJs over the DK in the north desert region of Iran and south of the Alborz chain are not well known. There are not much observational wind profiles available to study the jet in the region. So, we have used the ERA-Interim Reanalysis data that provide long enough historical grid data that can be used for this kind of studies. This paper climatologically presents the occurrence of NLLJs and its characteristics over the DK by analyzing multi-year ERA-Interim reanalysis. We have compared the reanalysis data with surface observations from 11 synoptic stations in the DK region in the long period (1979-2017) and also a 40m tall observation platform to find correspondence between the two. It is found that the ERA-Interim data set can capture the real atmospheric parameters and thus can be used to study NLLJs’ features in the region. The NLLJs occur in most of the summer nights, which are primarily easterly to northeasterly. The jet core typically appears at 850 hPa at the top of the surface inversion layer with monthly average speed of 9 to 14m/s in its core. Based on the Inertial oscillation theory or Blakadar (1957) effect, most NLLJs are located above the nocturnal inversion during the warm season nights, while during the cold season, the wind regime changes and weak westerly winds dominate in lower levels in this area. Based on the 6 hours’ resolution of the available reanalysis data, NLLJs above the inversion have strong daily oscillations and the maximum wind speed occurs at 00 and the minimum at 12 UTC and an annual cycle with a mean monthly maximum speed in June. We quantified mean monthly NLLJ parameters using some definitions and construct magnitudes of the NLLJ in every grid point in the DK region. The magnitude of the momentum in the lower atmosphere from the top of the surface layer to the top of the mixed layer is large for NLLJs of the warm season and using the bulk Richardson number, in a few case studies, the downward momentum transfer in weak stability conditions leads to dust rising in the region. The winds below the NLLJ core to the desert surface gain strength in summer, and these summer winds are coincident with an enhancement of rising dust that reduces visibility in the cities in the desert margins. The nocturnal jet seems to flow along the southern mountain range of Alborz that extents far west even to the Tehran greater plain. Such strong flow may have implication for air pollution ventilation of the Tehran area in summer. This phenomena can be interesting subject for future study in this area (Tehran) that suffers from acute air pollution episodes.

Considering the increase in number of offshore oil production projects and for better understanding of plume dynamics in accidental underwater oil blowouts, a series of laboratory experiments in a square cross section open top basin were carried out to investigate the effect of changes in seawater stratification and water column stability on plume dynamics and peeling height.  Accordingly the open top basin was filled with stratified salt water at different buoyancy frequencies and the results of experiments were numerically expanded to marine condition of shallow waters. Non-dimensionalized form of experimental and numerical results showed that decrease in basin buoyancy frequency increases the plume peeling height and reduces the plume width. Experimental results showed that the neutral buoyancy level was the applicable transition criterion from plume dynamic phase to advective and diffusive phase.

In this study, using the HYCOM, the role of bed friction in the salinity front was studied. A resolution of 0.05° horizontally and 29 hybrid layers were used for the simulation, and the simulation area includes the entire Persian Gulf and most parts of the Oman-Sea (up to 59.9°E). The model uses the initial conditions of the WOA13 data with a resolution of 0.25°, the sponge boundary condition in the east of the Oman Sea with an e-folding time of 78 day and a buffer zone of 50 km. The CFSV2 Atmospheric Forcing (0.2°) uses 1-hourly data with baro-tropic and baro-clinic time-steps of 15,120 seconds respectively. The model was integrated from 2011 to 2015, and the results of 2015 were selected for discussion. The results indicate that eddies are formed along the salinity front. The salinity front appears to be prone to baroclinic instability that mainly appears in the summer months in the form of cyclonic-eddies (more saline center) and anti-cyclonic eddies (less saline center), which peak in August. In this instability, in addition to seasonal changes and density stratification, the role of friction is important. Spectral analysis of water characteristics in the salinity front shows the time scales of eddies, which varies from several hours to about three-months. Once the drag coefficient is halved and then doubled. The results indicate that the advance of the salinity front into the Persian Gulf has an inverse relationship with the drag- coefficient. Also, in lower friction runs, anticyclone-eddies is not observed, but in higher friction mode, both cyclonic and anti-cyclonic eddies were observed.

A three dimensional numerical model namely ROMS (Regional Ocean Modeling System) and observational data are used to study the thermohaline front of Persian Gulf Outflow in the Oman Sea. The simulation results show the formation of a thermohaline front at 80m depth in the direction of the north-east-southwest at the mouth of the Oman Sea. The seasonal thermohaline front variability was also identified, during winter a heat and salty tongue stretches from the Strait of Hormuz to the continental shelf along the south Oman coast. During summer, it shows a current departing from the coast moving forward to the middle of the Oman Sea. Thermohaline front is observed throughout the year, in summer as unified and patchy in winter. Intrusion of warm and salty water of Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Oman displays a local increase in salinity in the middle layers in 150-450m and 100-400m depths in winter and summer respectively which expresses two boundaries in the upper and lower layers. Diffusive convection and salt fingering can be seen in both the upper and lower boundaries respectively. The complex ocean flow patterns are result of monsoons in the Oman sea area. During the winter monsoon, a single cyclonic gyre is often observed near 58◦E and during the Southwest monsoon in summer, a dipolar eddy near Ras al Hamra and an anticyclone’s gyre in 25°N are detected.