A Mass Budget Analysis on the Interannual Variability of the Polar Surface Pressure in the Winter Season

This study reports a mass budget analysis on the year-to-year variability of the winter [December–February (DJF)]-mean Arctic (60°–90°N) surface pressure (Ps) using the 33-yr daily Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim; 1979–2011). The analysis reveals that the interannual variability of mass transported into the Arctic region in upper layers plays a dominant role in the interannual variability of the winter-mean Arctic Ps anomalies. When winter-mean Arctic Ps anomalies are positive, both the transport of mass into the Arctic region in the upper layer by the poleward branch of meridional mass circulation and the transport of mass out of the Arctic region in the lower layer by the equatorward branch tend to strengthen and vice versa. In the earlier winter months from November to December, mass anomalies transported in overwhelm those transported out, explaining the mass source of winter-mean Arctic Ps anomalies. The coupling between adiabatic mass transport by meridional mass circulation and diabatic processes explains why, over the Arctic region, yearly variations of winter Ps are positively correlated with mass anomalies in the upper layer (above 290 K) and near the surface (below 260 K) but negatively correlated with mass anomalies in the middle and lower troposphere (between 260 and 290 K). In winters with positive (negative) Arctic Ps anomalies, wave activity, particularly in wavenumbers 1 and 2, is stronger (weaker) in the extratropical stratosphere in the earlier winter months from November to January, coincident with the interannual variability of the meridional mass circulation intensity in winter seasons.