scholarly journals Characteristics of Baroclinic Wave Packets during Strong and Weak Stratospheric Polar Vortex Events

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 3190-3207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian N. Williams ◽  
Stephen J. Colucci
Keyword(s):  
Zonal Wind ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Baroclinic Instability ◽  
Phase Speed ◽  
Vertical Wind Shear ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Vertical Shear ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Observational Record

Abstract This study tested a numerical and theoretical prediction that the stratosphere and troposphere are coupled through the effect of stratospheric vertical wind shear on baroclinic waves. Wavelengths, phase speeds, and background quasigeostrophic potential vorticity gradients were analyzed over the Pacific and Atlantic during strong and weak stratospheric polar vortex events and interpreted in terms of the counterpropagating Rossby wave perspective on baroclinic instability. Effects of zonal variations in the background flow were included in the analysis of phase speeds. Observed changes in wave packet average wavelength and phase speed support the vertical shear hypothesis for stratosphere–troposphere coupling; however, changes in the intrinsic phase speed contradict the hypothesis. This inconsistency was resolved by considering the change in zonal wind speed in the lower stratosphere, which accounts for most of the change in phase speeds during strong and weak vortex events. Changes in the average wavelengths and meridional wave activity flux are also consistent with this modified hypothesis involving the stratospheric zonal wind. The results demonstrate that a simple mechanism for stratosphere–troposphere coupling can be found in the observational record.

scholarly journals The Effect of Lower Stratospheric Shear on Baroclinic Instability

2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 479-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. H. Wittman ◽  
Andrew J. Charlton ◽  
Lorenzo M. Polvani
Keyword(s):  
Growth Rate ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Baroclinic Instability ◽  
Phase Speed ◽  
Finite Amplitude ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Vertical Shear ◽  
Northern Annular Mode ◽  
Jet Structure

Abstract Using a hierarchy of models, and observations, the effect of vertical shear in the lower stratosphere on baroclinic instability in the tropospheric midlatitude jet is examined. It is found that increasing stratospheric shear increases the phase speed of growing baroclinic waves, increases the growth rate of modes with low synoptic wavenumbers, and decreases the growth rate of modes with higher wavenumbers. The meridional structure of the linear modes, and their acceleration of the zonal mean jet, changes with increasing stratospheric shear, but in a way that apparently contradicts the observed stratosphere–troposphere northern annular mode (NAM) connection. This contradiction is resolved at finite amplitude. In nonlinear life cycle experiments it is found that increasing stratospheric shear, without changing the jet structure in the troposphere, produces a transition from anticyclonic (LC1) to cyclonic (LC2) behavior at wavenumber 7. All life cycles with wavenumbers lower than 7 are LC1, and all with wavenumber greater than 7 are LC2. For the LC1 life cycles, the effect of increasing stratospheric shear is to increase the poleward displacement of the zonal mean jet by the eddies, which is consistent with the observed stratosphere–troposphere NAM connection. Finally, it is found that the connection between high stratospheric shear and high-tropospheric NAM is present by NCEP–NCAR reanalysis data.

scholarly journals Does the Holton–Tan Mechanism Explain How the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation Modulates the Arctic Polar Vortex?

2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 1713-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaim I. Garfinkel ◽  
Tiffany A. Shaw ◽  
Dennis L. Hartmann ◽  
Darryn W. Waugh
Keyword(s):  
Zonal Wind ◽  
Planetary Wave ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Critical Line ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Mean Meridional Circulation ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Biennial Oscillation

Abstract Idealized experiments with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) are used to explore the mechanism(s) whereby the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) modulates the Northern Hemisphere wintertime stratospheric polar vortex. Overall, the effect of the critical line emphasized in the Holton–Tan mechanism is less important than the effect of the mean meridional circulation associated with QBO winds for the polar response to the QBO. More specifically, the introduction of easterly winds at the equator near 50 hPa 1) causes enhanced synoptic-scale Eliassen–Palm flux (EPF) convergence in the subtropics from 150 to 50 hPa, which leads to the subtropical critical line moving poleward in the lower stratosphere, and 2) creates a barrier to planetary wave propagation from subpolar latitudes to midlatitudes in the middle and upper stratosphere (e.g., less equatorward EPF near 50°N), which leads to enhanced planetary wave convergence in the polar vortex region. These two effects are mechanistically distinct; while the former is related to the subtropical critical line, the latter is due to the mean meridional circulation of the QBO. All of these effects are consistent with linear theory, although the evolution of the entire wind distribution is only quasi-linear because induced zonal wind changes cause the wave driving to shift and thereby positively feed back on the zonal wind changes. Finally, downward propagation of the QBO in the equatorial stratosphere, upper stratospheric equatorial zonal wind, and changes in the tropospheric circulation appear to be less important than lower stratospheric easterlies for the polar stratospheric response. Overall, an easterly QBO wind anomaly in the lower stratosphere leads to a weakened stratospheric polar vortex, in agreement with previous studies, although not because of changes in the subtropical critical line.

The Influence of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation on the Troposphere in Winter in a Hierarchy of Models. Part I: Simplified Dry GCMs

2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1273-1289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaim I. Garfinkel ◽  
Dennis L. Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Zonal Wind ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
The North ◽  
Subtropical Jet ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Biennial Oscillation

Abstract A dry primitive equation model is used to explain how the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the tropical stratosphere can influence the troposphere, even in the absence of tropical convection anomalies and a variable stratospheric polar vortex. QBO momentum anomalies induce a meridional circulation to maintain thermal wind balance. This circulation includes zonal wind anomalies that extend from the equatorial stratosphere into the subtropical troposphere. In the presence of extratropical eddies, the zonal wind anomalies are intensified and extend downward to the surface. The tropospheric response differs qualitatively between integrations in which the subtropical jet is strong and integrations in which the subtropical jet is weak. While fluctuation–dissipation theory provides a guide to predicting the response in some cases, significant nonlinearity in others, particularly those designed to model the midwinter subtropical jet of the North Pacific, prevents its universal application. When the extratropical circulation is made zonally asymmetric, the response to the QBO is greatest in the exit region of the subtropical jet. The dry model is able to simulate much of the Northern Hemisphere wintertime tropospheric response to the QBO observed in reanalysis datasets and in long time integrations of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM).

Impact of wind shear and stratification near the tropopause on baroclinic instability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Flacké Haualand ◽  
Thomas Spengler
Keyword(s):  
Wind Shear ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Baroclinic Instability ◽  
Phase Speed ◽  
Vertical Wind Shear ◽  
Vertical Wind ◽  
Horizontal Gradient ◽  
Latent Heating ◽  
Correct Representation ◽  
Pv Gradient

<p>Many weather and climate models fail to represent the sharp vertical changes of vertical wind shear and stratification near the tropopause. This discrepancy results in errors in the horizontal gradient of potential vorticity (PV), which acts as a wave guide for Rossby waves that highly influence surface weather in midlatitudes. In an idealised quasi-geostrophic model developed from the Eady model, we investigate how variations in vertical wind shear and stratification near the tropopause affect baroclinic growth. Comparing sharp and smooth vertical profiles of wind shear and stratification across the tropopause for different tropopause altitudes, we find that both smoothing and tropopause altitude have little impact on the growth rate, wavelength, phase speed, and structure of baroclinic waves, despite a sometimes significant weakening of the maximum PV gradient for extensive smoothing. Instead, we find that baroclinic growth is more sensitive if the vertical integral of the PV gradient is not conserved across the tropopause. Furthermore, including mid-tropospheric latent heating highlights that errors in baroclinic growth related to a misrepresentation of latent heating intensity are typically much larger than those associated with the correct representation of vertical wind shear and stratification in the tropopause region. Our results thus indicate that the correct representation of latent heating in weather forecast models is of higher importance than adequately resolving the tropopause.</p>

scholarly journals Instabilities of continuously stratified zonal equatorial jets in a periodic channel model

2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 729-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Masina
Keyword(s):  
Channel Model ◽  
Baroclinic Instability ◽  
Phase Speed ◽  
Maximum Velocity ◽  
Equatorial Region ◽  
Eastern Pacific ◽  
Vertical Shear ◽  
Coriolis Parameter ◽  
Vertical Scale ◽  
Surface Jet

Abstract. Several numerical experiments are performed in a nonlinear, multi-level periodic channel model centered on the equator with different zonally uniform background flows which resemble the South Equatorial Current (SEC). Analysis of the simulations focuses on identifying stability criteria for a continuously stratified fluid near the equator. A 90 m deep frontal layer is required to destabilize a zonally uniform, 10° wide, westward surface jet that is symmetric about the equator and has a maximum velocity of 100 cm/s. In this case, the phase velocity of the excited unstable waves is very similar to the phase speed of the Tropical Instability Waves (TIWs) observed in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The vertical scale of the baroclinic waves corresponds to the frontal layer depth and their phase speed increases as the vertical shear of the jet is doubled. When the westward surface parabolic jet is made asymmetric about the equator, in order to simulate more realistically the structure of the SEC in the eastern Pacific, two kinds of instability are generated. The oscillations that grow north of the equator have a baroclinic nature, while those generated on and very close to the equator have a barotropic nature.  This study shows that the potential for baroclinic instability in the equatorial region can be as large as at mid-latitudes, if the tendency of isotherms to have a smaller slope for a given zonal velocity, when the Coriolis parameter vanishes, is compensated for by the wind effect.Key words. Oceanography: general (equatorial oceanography; numerical modeling) – Oceanography: physics (fronts and jets)

scholarly journals Anomalous quasi-stationary planetary waves over the Antarctic region in 1988 and 2002

2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1101-1108 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. V. Grytsai ◽  
O. M. Evtushevsky ◽  
G. P. Milinevsky
Keyword(s):  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Amplitude Distribution ◽  
Stationary Wave ◽  
Planetary Waves ◽  
Late Winter ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Latitudinal Position ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
Peak Value

Abstract. Anomalies in the Antarctic total ozone and amplitudes of the quasi-stationary planetary waves in the lower stratosphere temperature during the winter and spring of 1988 and 2002 have been compared. Westward displacement of the quasi-stationary wave (QSW) extremes by 50°–70° relative to the preceding years of the strong stratospheric polar vortex in 1987 and 2001, respectively, was observed. A dependence of the quasi-stationary wave ridge and trough positions on the strength of the westerly zonal wind in the lower stratosphere is shown. Comparison of the QSW amplitude in the lower stratosphere temperature in July and August shows that the amplitude distribution with latitude in August could be considered as a possible indication of the future anomalous warming in Antarctic spring. In August 2002, the QSW amplitude of 10 K at the edge region of the polar vortex (60° S–65° S) preceded the major warming in September, whereas in August 1988, the highest 7 K amplitude at 55° S preceded the large warming in the next months. These results suggest that the peak value of the lower stratosphere temperature QSW amplitude and the peak latitudinal position in late winter can influence the southern polar vortex strength in spring.

scholarly journals Influence of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation on the Extratropical Winter Stratosphere in an Atmospheric General Circulation Model and in Reanalysis Data

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1402-1419 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Anstey ◽  
Theodore G. Shepherd ◽  
John F. Scinocca
Keyword(s):  
Zonal Wind ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Empirical Orthogonal Functions ◽  
Vertical Profiles ◽  
Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Atmospheric General Circulation ◽  
Biennial Oscillation

Abstract The interannual variability of the stratospheric polar vortex during winter in both hemispheres is observed to correlate strongly with the phase of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) in tropical stratospheric winds. It follows that the lack of a spontaneously generated QBO in most atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) adversely affects the nature of polar variability in such models. This study examines QBO–vortex coupling in an AGCM in which a QBO is spontaneously induced by resolved and parameterized waves. The QBO–vortex coupling in the AGCM compares favorably to that seen in reanalysis data [from the 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40)], provided that careful attention is given to the definition of QBO phase. A phase angle representation of the QBO is employed that is based on the two leading empirical orthogonal functions of equatorial zonal wind vertical profiles. This yields a QBO phase that serves as a proxy for the vertical structure of equatorial winds over the whole depth of the stratosphere and thus provides a means of subsampling the data to select QBO phases with similar vertical profiles of equatorial zonal wind. Using this subsampling, it is found that the QBO phase that induces the strongest polar vortex response in early winter differs from that which induces the strongest late-winter vortex response. This is true in both hemispheres and for both the AGCM and ERA-40. It follows that the strength and timing of QBO influence on the vortex may be affected by the partial seasonal synchronization of QBO phase transitions that occurs both in observations and in the model. This provides a mechanism by which changes in the strength of QBO–vortex correlations may exhibit variability on decadal time scales. In the model, such behavior occurs in the absence of external forcings or interannual variations in sea surface temperatures.

Impact of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation on the boreal winter tropospheric circulation in CMIP5/6 models

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Rao ◽  
Chaim Garfinkel ◽  
Ian White ◽  
Chen Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Buoyancy Frequency ◽  
Maritime Continent ◽  
Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Enso Events ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Biennial Oscillation

<p>Using 17 CMIP5/6 models with a spontaneously-generated quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO)-like phenomenon, this study explores and evaluates three dynamical pathways for impacts of the QBO on the troposphere: (i) the Holtan-Tan (HT) effect on the stratospheric polar vortex and the northern annular mode (NAM), (ii) the subtropical zonal wind downward arching over the Pacific, and (iii) changes in local convection over the Maritime Continent and Indo-Pacific Ocean. More than half of the models can reproduce at least one of the three pathways, but few models can reproduce all of the three routes. Firstly, most models are able to simulate a weakened polar vortex during easterly QBO (EQBO) winters, in agreement with the observed HT effect. However, the weakened polar vortex response during EQBO winters is underestimated or not present at all in other models, and hence the QBO → vortex → tropospheric NAM/AO chain is not simulated. For the second pathway associated with the downward arching of the QBO winds, seven models incorrectly or poorly simulate the extratropical easterly anomaly center over 20–40°N in the Pacific sector during EQBO, and hence the negative relative vorticity anomalies poleward of the easterly center is not resolved in those models, leading to an underestimated or incorrectly modelled height response over North Pacific. However the other ten do capture this effect. The third pathway is only observed in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, where the strong climatological deep convection and the warm pool are situated. Nine models can simulate the convection anomalies associated with the QBO over the Maritime Continent, which is likely caused by the near-tropopause low buoyancy frequency anomalies. No robust relationship between the QBO and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events can be established using the ERA-Interim reanalysis, and nine models consistently confirm little modulation of the ocean basin-wide Walker circulation and ENSO events by the QBO.</p>

The stratospheric polar vortex and sub-vortex : fluid dynamics and midlatitude ozone loss

1995 ◽  
Vol 352 (1699) ◽  
pp. 227-240 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Flow Reactor ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Large Mass ◽  
Heterogeneous Reactions ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Ozone Loss ◽  
Middle Latitudes ◽  
Polar Stratospheric Cloud ◽  
Flow Through

It has been suggested on the basis of certain chemical observations that the wintertime stratospheric polar vortex might act as a chemical processor, or flow reactor, through which large amounts of air - of the order of one vortex mass per month or three vortex masses per winter - flow downwards and then outwards to middle latitudes in the lower stratosphere. If such a flow were to exist, then most of the air involved would become chemically ‘activated’, or primed for ozone destruction, while passing through the low temperatures of the vortex where fast heterogeneous reactions can take place on polar-stratospheric-cloud particles. There could be serious implications for our understanding of ozone-hole chemistry and for midlatitude ozone loss, both in the Northern and in the Southern Hemisphere. This paper will briefly assess current fluid-dynamical thinking about flow through the vortex. It is concluded that the vortex typically cannot sustain an average throughput much greater than about a sixth of a vortex mass per month, or half a vortex mass per winter, unless a large and hitherto unknown mean circumferential force acts persistently on the vortex in an eastward or ‘spin-up’ sense, prograde with the Earth’s rotation. By contrast, the ‘sub-vortex’ below pressure-altitudes of about 70 hPa (more precisely, on isentropic surfaces below potential temperatures of about 400 K) is capable of relatively large mass throughput depending, however, on tropospheric weather beneath, concerning which observational data are sparse.

scholarly journals Relative importance of tropopause structure and diabatic heating for baroclinic instability

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 695-712
Author(s):  
Kristine Flacké Haualand ◽  
Thomas Spengler
Keyword(s):  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Wind Shear ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Baroclinic Instability ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Latent Heating ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Misrepresentations of wind shear and stratification around the tropopause in numerical weather prediction models can lead to errors in potential vorticity gradients with repercussions for Rossby wave propagation and baroclinic instability. Using a diabatic extension of the linear quasi-geostrophic Eady model featuring a tropopause, we investigate the influence of such discrepancies on baroclinic instability by varying tropopause sharpness and altitude as well as wind shear and stratification in the lower stratosphere, which can be associated with model or data assimilation errors or a downward extension of a weakened polar vortex. We find that baroclinic development is less sensitive to tropopause sharpness than to modifications in wind shear and stratification in the lower stratosphere, where the latter are associated with a net change in the vertical integral of the horizontal potential vorticity gradient across the tropopause. To further quantify the relevance of these sensitivities, we compare these findings to the impact of including mid-tropospheric latent heating. For representative modifications of wind shear, stratification, and latent heating intensity, the sensitivity of baroclinic instability to tropopause structure is significantly less than that to latent heating of different intensities. These findings indicate that tropopause sharpness might be less important for baroclinic development than previously anticipated and that latent heating and the structure in the lower stratosphere could play a more crucial role, with latent heating being the dominant factor.

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