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Hi Matt,
We’re so glad you enjoyed the article and thank you for your questions! To answer:
- There are typically multiple Rossby waves in the Earth’s atmosphere at once, with a few propagating across the midlatitudes of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Rossby waves primarily form from the rotation of the Earth and unequal heating from the sun and also air flowing over complex topography such as mountains.
- Rossby waves all move in the same direction (west to east) with slight variations in their north-south positioning, so often their unidirectional motion keeps them from running into each other. Some Rossby waves can also travel from the tropics to the midlatitudes. Rossby waves can sometimes run into each other which results in constructive or destructive interference of the wave signals. You can read more about this in a previous ENSO blog post.
- Since Rossby waves arise due to fluid dynamics on a rotating sphere (like here on Earth), they can be found in the atmospheres of other large terrestrial bodies like Jupiter and Saturn! You can learn more about Rossby waves on other planets here.