SUMMARYThree improvements to the representation of orography for use in numerical weather-and climate-prediction models are presented. The rst improvement is to replace the US Navy dataset with a new digitally generated dataset as the de nition of the true earth topography. There are large differences on all scales between the two datasets and these lead to large differences in the mean and subgrid-scale elds that are derived from them. The second improvement is to lter the mean and subgrid-scale orography (SSO) elds to remove grid-scale and neargrid-scale features and thus suppress forcing on scales that the model cannot treat well. The third improvement is to implement a new, simple parametrization of the effects of SSO in which the total surface pressure drag is calculated using the analytical expression for linear hydrostatic ow over a two-dimensional ridge in the absence of friction and rotation. The surface pressure drag is partitioned into gravity-wave and blocked-ow components that depend on the Froude number of the ow impinging on the SSO. The new scheme attributes about 70% of the total drag to ow blocking.These improvements have been incorporated into a new version of the Met Of ce Uni ed Model. A series of numerical weather-prediction experiments demonstrates that the introduction of the new SSO scheme is the most signi cant change. In particular, signi cant improvements to forecast skill, attributable to the SSO scheme's ow-blocking drag component, are found at low levels in the northern hemisphere and the Tropics for an extended northern hemisphere wintertime forecast trial. Furthermore, there are no signi cant degradations in skill at upper levels, in the southern hemisphere or for summertime trials.

Drawing on rich interdisciplinary research that has laced the emerging subject of drag studies as an academic discipline, this book examines how drag performance is a political, socio-cultural practice with a widespread lineage throughout the history of performance. This volume maps the multi-threaded contexts of contemporary practices while rooting them in their fabulous historical past and memory. The book examines drag histories and what drag does with history, how it enacts or tells stories about remembering and the past. Featuring work about the USA, UK and Ireland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Barbados, this book allows the reader to engage with a range of archival research including camp and history; ethnicity and drag; queering ballet through drag; the connections between drag king and queen history; queering pantomime performance; drag and military veterans; Puerto Rican drag performers and historical film.