Katabatic wind
wind that carries high density air down a slope
A katabatic wind (named from Ancient Greek κατάβασις (katábasis) 'descent') is a downslope wind caused by the flow of an elevated, high-density air mass into a lower-density air mass below. The spelling catabatic is also used. Since air density is strongly dependent on temperature, the high-density air mass is usually cooler, and the katabatic winds are relatively cool or cold.
Examples of katabatic winds include the downslope valley and mountain breezes, the piteraq winds of Greenland, the Bora in the Adriatic, the Bohemian Wind or Böhmwind in the Ore Mountains, the Santa Ana winds in southern California, the oroshi in Japan, or "the Barber" in New Zealand.
Not all downslope winds are katabatic. For instance, winds such as the föhn and chinook are rain shadow winds where air driven upslope on the windward side of a mountain range drops its moisture and descends leeward drier and warmer.
Mechanism
A katabatic wind originates from the difference of density of two air masses located above a slope. This density difference usually comes from temperature difference, though humidity may also play a role. Schematically, katabatic winds can be divided into two types for which the mechanisms are slightly different: the katabatic winds due to radiative cooling (the most common) and the fall winds. In general, colder air becomes denser than warmer air, which allows it to move downslope due to the gravity.
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This entry incorporates text from “Katabatic wind” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.