[jworrell (OP)]

Hello everyone. I'm trying to wrap my head around a bit of Meteorology.

I understand that an unstable wave forms when upper level divergence (ahead of a short wave trough) passes over a frontal boundary. This causes upward vertical motion and convergence at the surface which spins pushing cold air towards the equator and warm air towards the pole.

This advection causes the upstream trough and downstream ridge to deepen and build respectively, with the deepening trough comes increased divergence which continues to deepen the low.

I know that the energy to deepen the wave comes from the temperature contrast. What I do not understand is why this increasing temperature contrast causes the trough to deepen.

I've looked on Google a bit, but every explanation seems to either be too simplistic or too complicated.

[paul.fr]

Perhaps these links may help:

What is a baroclinic wave?

Why do cold fronts move faster than warm fronts?

These are links to a few books that you can read online:

Global Tropical Cyclogenesis
Climatology
Mid-latitude weather systems

and a few that you may find interesting:

PROGGING SURFACE SYNOPTIC FEATURES
and this one opens as a microsoft word doccument:
http://geog-www.sbs.ohio-state.edu/courses/G620/hobgood/ASP620Lecture10.ppt

[Raghavendra]

ya correct