Flow acceleration and mountain drag.

Dynamic explanations of mountain drag usually invoke viscous effects and/or wave momentum flux by either Rossby or internal gravity waves. This paper explores an alternative mechanism in terms of the unsteadiness of the incident flow. The reaction to acceleration (local time rate of change) of the flow past a stationary obstacle can manifest itself as a contribution to the drag on the flow. A simple model provides an estimate of this acceleration reaction in a geophysically relevant context. The shallow-water flow of a periodic current around a right-circular cylinder is determined for subinertial periods and arbitrary rotational Froude number. The results of this prototype calculation support the hypothesis that acceleration reaction may provide a substantial contribution to the mountain drag exerted by mesoscale and synoptic-scale obstacles. -Author