The formation of internal bores in the atmosphere: A laboratory model

Abstract

Abstract Recently several atmospheric observations have been interpreted as internal undular bores or internal solitary waves evolving from internal bores that propagate along low‐level temperature inversions. It has been speculated that such disturbances are generated by some type of gravity current (such as cold fronts, sea breeze fronts and thunderstorm outflows) interacting with an existing temperature inversion. In this paper we describe a systematic laboratory study in a water channel, of internal bores and their generation by the movement of gravity currents through a two‐layer model of the atmosphere. We compare the results of our laboratory experiments with previous theories and numerical simulations and with several detailed atmospheric observations of internal bores at different stages of development.