The Atmospheric Response to North Atlantic SST Trends, 1870–2019

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristopher B. Karnauskas ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Dillon J. Amaya
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Atmospheric Response

Atmospheric Teleconnections of Tropical Atlantic Variability: Interhemispheric, Tropical–Extratropical, and Cross-Basin Interactions

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 856-870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lixin Wu ◽  
Feng He ◽  
Zhengyu Liu ◽  
Chun Li
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Wave Train ◽  
Seasonal Migration ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
Tropical Atlantic ◽  
The North ◽  
Atmospheric Teleconnections ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract In this paper, the atmospheric teleconnections of the tropical Atlantic SST variability are investigated in a series of coupled ocean–atmosphere modeling experiments. It is found that the tropical Atlantic climate not only displays an apparent interhemispheric link, but also significantly influences the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In spring, the tropical Atlantic SST exhibits an interhemispheric seesaw controlled by the wind–evaporation–SST (WES) feedback that subsequently decays through the mediation of the seasonal migration of the ITCZ. Over the North Atlantic, the tropical Atlantic SST can force a significant coupled NAO–dipole SST response in spring that changes to a coupled wave train–horseshoe SST response in the following summer and fall, and a recurrence of the NAO in the next winter. The seasonal changes of the atmospheric response as well as the recurrence of the next winter’s NAO are driven predominantly by the tropical Atlantic SST itself, while the resulting extratropical SST can enhance the atmospheric response, but it is not a necessary bridge of the winter-to-winter NAO persistency. Over the Pacific, the model demonstrates that the north tropical Atlantic (NTA) SST can also organize an interhemispheric SST seesaw in spring in the eastern equatorial Pacific that subsequently evolves into an ENSO-like pattern in the tropical Pacific through mediation of the ITCZ and equatorial coupled ocean–atmosphere feedback.

scholarly journals Atmospheric Response to Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice: The Importance of Ocean–Atmosphere Coupling and the Background State

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 4547-4565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug M. Smith ◽  
Nick J. Dunstone ◽  
Adam A. Scaife ◽  
Emma K. Fiedler ◽  
Dan Copsey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
The North ◽  
Antarctic Sea Ice ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Background State

The atmospheric response to Arctic and Antarctic sea ice changes typical of the present day and coming decades is investigated using the Hadley Centre global climate model (HadGEM3). The response is diagnosed from ensemble simulations of the period 1979 to 2009 with observed and perturbed sea ice concentrations. The experimental design allows the impacts of ocean–atmosphere coupling and the background atmospheric state to be assessed. The modeled response can be very different to that inferred from statistical relationships, showing that the response cannot be easily diagnosed from observations. Reduced Arctic sea ice drives a local low pressure response in boreal summer and autumn. Increased Antarctic sea ice drives a poleward shift of the Southern Hemisphere midlatitude jet, especially in the cold season. Coupling enables surface temperature responses to spread to the ocean, amplifying the atmospheric response and revealing additional impacts including warming of the North Atlantic in response to reduced Arctic sea ice, with a northward shift of the Atlantic intertropical convergence zone and increased Sahel rainfall. The background state controls the sign of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) response via the refraction of planetary waves. This could help to resolve differences in previous studies, and potentially provides an “emergent constraint” to narrow the uncertainties in the NAO response, highlighting the need for future multimodel coordinated experiments.

scholarly journals Transient Atmospheric Response to Interactive SST Anomalies

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 576-583 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ferreira ◽  
Claude Frankignoul
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Maximum Amplitude ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
The North ◽  
Winter Conditions ◽  
Initial Evolution ◽  
Sst Anomaly ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Sst Anomalies

Abstract The transient atmospheric response to interactive SST anomalies in the midlatitudes is investigated using a three-layer QG model coupled in perpetual winter conditions to a slab oceanic mixed layer in the North Atlantic. The SST anomalies are diagnosed from a coupled run and prescribed as initial conditions, but are free to evolve. The initial evolution of the atmospheric response is similar to that obtained with a prescribed SST anomaly, starting as a quasi-linear baroclinic and then quickly evolving into a growing equivalent barotropic one. Because of the heat flux damping, the SST anomaly amplitude slowly decreases, albeit with little change in pattern. Correspondingly, the atmospheric response only increases until it reaches a maximum amplitude after about 1–3.5 months, depending on the SST anomaly considered. The response is similar to that at equilibrium in the fixed SST case, but it is 1.5–2 times smaller, and then slowly decays away.

Extratropical Atmospheric Response to Equatorial Atlantic Cold Tongue Anomalies

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2076-2091 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reindert J. Haarsma ◽  
Wilco Hazeleger
Keyword(s):  
Rossby Wave ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Maximum Amplitude ◽  
Vertical Shear ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
Cold Tongue ◽  
The North ◽  
Subtropical Jet ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract The extratropical atmospheric response to the equatorial cold tongue mode in the Atlantic Ocean has been investigated with the coupled ocean–atmosphere model, Speedy Ocean (SPEEDO). Similar to the observations, the model simulates a lagged covariability between the equatorial cold tongue mode during late boreal summer and the east Atlantic pattern a few months later in early winter. The equatorial cold tongue mode attains its maximum amplitude during late boreal summer. However, only a few months later, when the ITCZ has moved southward, it is able to induce a significant upper-tropospheric divergence that is able to force a Rossby wave response. The lagged covariability is therefore the result of the persistence of the cold tongue anomaly and a favorable tropical atmospheric circulation a few months later. The Rossby wave energy is trapped in the South Asian subtropical jet and propagates circumglobally before it reaches the North Atlantic. Due to the local increase of the Hadley circulation, forced by the cold tongue anomaly, the subtropical jet over the North Atlantic is enhanced. The resulting increase in the vertical shear of the zonal wind increases the baroclinicity over the North Atlantic. This causes the nonlinear growth of the anomalies due to transient eddy feedbacks to be largest over the North Atlantic, resulting in an enhanced response over that region.

scholarly journals Mechanisms Determining the Winter Atmospheric Response to the Atlantic Overturning Circulation

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (10) ◽  
pp. 3767-3785 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Gastineau ◽  
B. L’Hévéder ◽  
F. Codron ◽  
C. Frankignoul
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽  
Late Winter ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
Overturning Circulation ◽  
The North ◽  
Eddy Heat Flux ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract In climate models, an intensification of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) precedes a warming in the North Atlantic subpolar basin by a few years. In the IPSL-CM5A-LR model, this warming may explain the atmospheric response to the AMOC observed in winter, which resembles a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). To firmly establish the causality links between the ocean and the atmosphere and illustrate the underlying mechanisms in this model, ensembles of atmosphere-only simulations are conducted, prescribing the SST and sea ice anomalies that follow an AMOC intensification. In late winter, the North Atlantic SST and sea ice anomalies drive atmospheric circulation anomalies similar to those found in the coupled model. Simulations only driven by the SST anomalies related to the AMOC show that the largest oceanic influence is due to the warm subpolar SST anomaly, which enhances the oceanic heat release and decreases the lower-tropospheric baroclinicity in the region of maximum eddy growth, resulting in a weaker meridional eddy heat flux in the atmosphere. The transient eddy feedback leads to a negative NAO-like response. An AMOC intensification is also followed by less sea ice over the Labrador Sea and more sea ice over the Nordic seas. The simulations with full boundary forcing suggest that such anomalies act to strengthen both the poleward momentum flux and the upward heat flux into the polar stratosphere and lead to a stratospheric warming, which then reinforces the negative NAO signal in late winter.

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