Abstract
This paper bypasses the mathematical technicalities of baroclinic instability and tries to provide a more conceptual, mechanistic explanation for a phenomenon that is fundamentally important to the dynamics of the earth's atmosphere and oceans. The standard conceptual picture of baroclinic instability is reviewed and stripped down to identify the most essential features. These are: (a) Regions with both positive and negative potential vorticity (PV) gradients, (b) separate Rossby wave perturbations in each region where PV gradients are of different signs, and (c) cooperative phase locking between Rossby waves in regions of opposite PV gradient, which renders them stationary, and allows them to amplify to reduce the background temperature gradient (or baroclinicity) while still conserving total PV. These three factors constitute the "counterpropagating Rossby wave" perspective, and suggest the heuristic picture of a "PV seesaw", which remains balanced as the instabilities (i.e., the phase-locked PV wave perturbations) grow out along opposite limbs. After reviewing the key characteristics of PV and Rossby waves, the process is illustrated by the spontaneous onset of baroclinic instability during spin-up of the Held-Suarez dynamical core atmospheric model.