Intraseasonal and Interdecadal Jet Shifts in the Northern Hemisphere: The Role of Warm Pool Tropical Convection and Sea Ice

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (17) ◽  
pp. 6497-6518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven B. Feldstein ◽  
Sukyoung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Warm Pool ◽  
Wave Activity ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Tropical Convection ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Wave Activity Flux

Abstract This study uses cluster analysis to investigate the interdecadal poleward shift of the subtropical and eddy-driven jets and its relationship to intraseasonal teleconnections. For this purpose, self-organizing map (SOM) analysis is applied to the ECMWF Interim Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) zonal-mean zonal wind. The resulting SOM patterns have time scales of 4.8–5.7 days and undergo notable interdecadal trends in their frequency of occurrence. The sum of these trends closely resembles the observed interdecadal trend of the subtropical and eddy-driven jets, indicating that much of the interdecadal climate forcing is manifested through changes in the frequency of intraseasonal teleconnection patterns. Two classes of jet cluster patterns are identified. The first class of SOM pattern is preceded by anomalies in convection over the warm pool followed by changes in the poleward wave activity flux. The second class of patterns is preceded by sea ice and stratospheric polar vortex anomalies; when the Arctic sea ice area is reduced, the subsequent planetary wave anomalies destructively interfere with the climatological stationary waves. This is followed by a decrease in the vertical wave activity flux and a strengthening of the stratospheric polar vortex. An increase in sea ice area leads to the opposite chain of events. Analysis suggests that the positive trend in the Arctic Oscillation (AO) up until the early 1990s might be attributed to increased warm pool tropical convection, while the subsequent reversal in its trend may be due to the influence of tropical convection being overshadowed by the accelerated loss of Arctic sea ice.

scholarly journals Weak Stratospheric Polar Vortex Events Modulated by the Arctic Sea‐Ice Loss

2019 ◽  
Vol 124 (2) ◽  
pp. 858-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhira Hoshi ◽  
Jinro Ukita ◽  
Meiji Honda ◽  
Tetsu Nakamura ◽  
Koji Yamazaki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice Loss

scholarly journals Stationary Wave Interference and Its Relation to Tropical Convection and Arctic Warming

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 1369-1389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Goss ◽  
Steven B. Feldstein ◽  
Sukyoung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Stationary Wave ◽  
Warm Pool ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Boreal Winter ◽  
Destructive Interference ◽  
Constructive Interference ◽  
Sea Ice Concentration ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex

Abstract The interference between transient eddies and climatological stationary eddies in the Northern Hemisphere is investigated. The amplitude and sign of the interference is represented by the stationary wave index (SWI), which is calculated by projecting the daily 300-hPa streamfunction anomaly field onto the 300-hPa climatological stationary wave. ERA-Interim data for the years 1979 to 2013 are used. The amplitude of the interference peaks during boreal winter. The evolution of outgoing longwave radiation, Arctic temperature, 300-hPa streamfunction, 10-hPa zonal wind, Arctic sea ice concentration, and the Arctic Oscillation (AO) index are examined for days of large SWI values during the winter. Constructive interference during winter tends to occur about one week after enhanced warm pool convection and is followed by an increase in Arctic surface air temperature along with a reduction of sea ice in the Barents and Kara Seas. The warming of the Arctic does occur without prior warm pool convection, but it is enhanced and prolonged when constructive interference occurs in concert with enhanced warm pool convection. This is followed two weeks later by a weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex and a decline of the AO. All of these associations are reversed in the case of destructive interference. Potential climate change implications are briefly discussed.

scholarly journals Simulated Atmospheric Response to Regional and Pan-Arctic Sea Ice Loss

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 3945-3962 ◽  
Author(s):  
James A. Screen
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice Loss

Abstract The loss of Arctic sea ice is already having profound environmental, societal, and ecological impacts locally. A highly uncertain area of scientific research, however, is whether such Arctic change has a tangible effect on weather and climate at lower latitudes. There is emerging evidence that the geographical location of sea ice loss is critically important in determining the large-scale atmospheric circulation response and associated midlatitude impacts. However, such regional dependencies have not been explored in a thorough and systematic manner. To make progress on this issue, this study analyzes ensemble simulations with an atmospheric general circulation model prescribed with sea ice loss separately in nine regions of the Arctic, to elucidate the distinct responses to regional sea ice loss. The results suggest that in some regions, sea ice loss triggers large-scale dynamical responses, whereas in other regions sea ice loss induces only local thermodynamical changes. Sea ice loss in the Barents–Kara Seas is unique in driving a weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex, followed in time by a tropospheric circulation response that resembles the North Atlantic Oscillation. For October–March, the largest spatial-scale responses are driven by sea ice loss in the Barents–Kara Seas and the Sea of Okhotsk; however, different regions assume greater importance in other seasons. The atmosphere responds very differently to regional sea ice losses than to pan-Arctic sea ice loss, and the response to pan-Arctic sea ice loss cannot be obtained by the linear addition of the responses to regional sea ice losses. The results imply that diversity in past studies of the simulated response to Arctic sea ice loss can be partly explained by the different spatial patterns of sea ice loss imposed.

scholarly journals Impact of Reduced Arctic Sea Ice on Northern Hemisphere Climate and Weather in Autumn and Winter

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-61
Author(s):  
Svenya Chripko ◽  
Rym Msadek ◽  
Emilia Sanchez-Gomez ◽  
Laurent Terray ◽  
Laurent Bessières ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Autumn And Winter

AbstractThe Northern Hemisphere transient atmospheric response to Arctic sea decline is investigated in autumn and winter, using sensitivity experiments performed with the CNRMCM6-1 high-top climate model. Arctic sea ice albedo is reduced to the ocean value, yielding ice-free conditions during summer and a more moderate sea ice reduction during the following months. A strong ampli_cation of temperatures over the Arctic is induced by sea ice loss, with values reaching up to 25°C near the surface in autumn. Signi_cant surface temperature anomalies are also found over the mid-latitudes, with a warming reaching 1°C over North America and Europe, and a cooling reaching 1°C over central Asia. Using a dynamical adjustment method based on a regional reconstruction of circulation analogs, we show that the warming over North America and Europe can be explained both by changes in the atmospheric circulation and by the advection of warmer oceanic air by the climatological ow. In contrast, we demonstrate that the sea-ice induced cooling over central Asia is solely due to dynamical changes, involving an intensi_cation of the Siberian High and a cyclonic anomaly over the Sea of Okhotsk. In the troposphere, the abrupt Arctic sea ice decline favours a narrowing of the subtropical jet stream and a slight weakening of the lower part of the polar vortex that is explained by a weak enhancement of upward wave activity toward the stratosphere. We further show that reduced Arctic sea ice in our experiments is mainly associated with less severe cold extremes in the mid-latitudes.

scholarly journals Isolating the Atmospheric Circulation Response to Arctic Sea Ice Loss in the Coupled Climate System

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 2163-2185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Blackport ◽  
Paul J. Kushner
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Surface Warming ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Pressure Anomaly ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice Loss

Abstract In this study, coupled ocean–atmosphere–land–sea ice Earth system model (ESM) simulations driven separately by sea ice albedo reduction and by projected greenhouse-dominated radiative forcing are combined to cleanly isolate the sea ice loss response of the atmospheric circulation. A pattern scaling approach is proposed in which the local multidecadal mean atmospheric response is assumed to be separately proportional to the total sea ice loss and to the total low-latitude ocean surface warming. The proposed approach estimates the response to Arctic sea ice loss with low-latitude ocean temperatures fixed and vice versa. The sea ice response includes a high northern latitude easterly zonal wind response, an equatorward shift of the eddy-driven jet, a weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex, an anticyclonic sea level pressure anomaly over coastal Eurasia, a cyclonic sea level pressure anomaly over the North Pacific, and increased wintertime precipitation over the west coast of North America. Many of these responses are opposed by the response to low-latitude surface warming with sea ice fixed. However, both sea ice loss and low-latitude surface warming act in concert to reduce subseasonal temperature variability throughout the middle and high latitudes. The responses are similar in two related versions of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Earth system models, apart from the stratospheric polar vortex response. Evidence is presented that internal variability can easily contaminate the estimates if not enough independent climate states are used to construct them.

scholarly journals Response of the Wintertime Northern Hemisphere Atmospheric Circulation to Current and Projected Arctic Sea Ice Decline: A Numerical Study with CAM5

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 244-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yannick Peings ◽  
Gudrun Magnusdottir
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Late Winter ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Sea Ice Decline ◽  
Arctic Sea

Abstract The wintertime Northern Hemisphere (NH) atmospheric circulation response to current (2007–12) and projected (2080–99) Arctic sea ice decline is examined with the latest version of the Community Atmospheric Model (CAM5). The numerical experiments suggest that the current sea ice conditions force a remote atmospheric response in late winter that favors cold land surface temperatures over midlatitudes, as has been observed in recent years. Anomalous Rossby waves forced by the sea ice anomalies penetrate into the stratosphere in February and weaken the stratospheric polar vortex, resulting in negative anomalies of the northern annular mode (NAM) that propagate downward during the following weeks, especially over the North Pacific. The seasonality of the response is attributed to timing of the phasing between the forced and climatological waves. When sea ice concentration taken from projections of conditions at the end of the twenty-first century is prescribed to the model, negative anomalies of the NAM are visible in the troposphere, both in early and late winter. This response is mainly driven by the large warming of the lower troposphere over the Arctic, as little impact is found in the stratosphere in this experiment. As a result of the thermal expansion of the polar troposphere, the westerly flow is decelerated and a weak but statistically significant increase of the midlatitude meanders is identified. However, the thermodynamical response extends beyond the Arctic and offsets the dynamical effect, such that the stronger sea ice forcing has limited impact on the intensity of cold extremes over midlatitudes.

scholarly journals Weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex by Arctic sea-ice loss

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Baek-Min Kim ◽  
Seok-Woo Son ◽  
Seung-Ki Min ◽  
Jee-Hoon Jeong ◽  
Seong-Joong Kim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice Loss

scholarly journals Dynamical Link between the Barents–Kara Sea Ice and the Arctic Oscillation

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (14) ◽  
pp. 5103-5122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Yi Yang ◽  
Xiaojun Yuan ◽  
Mingfang Ting
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Arctic Oscillation ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Barents And Kara Seas ◽  
The Arctic Oscillation

Abstract The recent accelerated Arctic sea ice decline has been proposed as a possible forcing factor for midlatitude circulation changes, which can be projected onto the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and/or North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) mode. However, the timing and physical mechanisms linking AO responses to the Arctic sea ice forcing are not entirely understood. In this study, the authors suggest a connection between November sea ice extent in the Barents and Kara Seas and the following winter’s atmospheric circulation in terms of the fast sea ice retreat and the subsequent modification of local air–sea heat fluxes. In particular, the dynamical processes that link November sea ice in the Barents and Kara Seas with the development of AO anomalies in February is explored. In response to the lower-tropospheric warming associated with the initial thermal effect of the sea ice loss, the large-scale atmospheric circulation goes through a series of dynamical adjustment processes: The decelerated zonal-mean zonal wind anomalies propagate gradually from the subarctic to midlatitudes in about one month. The equivalent barotropic AO dipole pattern develops in January because of wave–mean flow interaction and firmly establishes itself in February following the weakening and warming of the stratospheric polar vortex. This connection between sea ice loss and the AO mode is robust on time scales ranging from interannual to decadal. Therefore, the recent winter AO weakening and the corresponding midlatitude climate change may be partly associated with the early winter sea ice loss in the Barents and Kara Seas.

Model and state dependence of the atmospheric response to Arctic sea-ice loss

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber Walsh ◽  
James Screen ◽  
Adam Scaife ◽  
Doug Smith ◽  
Rosie Eade
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
Model Resolution ◽  
Quasi Biennial Oscillation ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice Loss

<p>The climate response to Arctic sea-ice loss is highly uncertain. There exists considerable disagreement between observational and modelling studies, and between models, for reasons that remain poorly understood. To make progress, the Polar Amplification Model Intercomparison Project (PAMIP) was designed to provide coordinated experiments, with consistent sea-ice loss applied in multiple models. Results from the PAMIP are presented, focussing on the robustness of the atmospheric response to Arctic sea-ice loss across models and, within individual models, the dependence of the response on the mean state.</p><p>In the troposphere, the mid-latitude jet is either weakened and/or shifted towards the equator in all models, albeit with varying magnitudes. We hypothesise that the magnitude of the jet response is sensitive to the atmospheric model resolution. To test this, and to more broadly identify the aspects of the atmospheric response that are sensitive to model resolution, we compare like-for-like experiments with two versions of the HadGEM3 model at low (N96) and high (N216) horizontal resolution.</p><p>The stratospheric polar vortex response to Arctic sea-ice loss is not consistent between models, and appears to be influenced by both the size of the ensemble for each model and the phase of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO). The possible modulating effect of the QBO is further explored using new simulations with background atmospheric states representing the easterly and westerly QBO phases.</p><p>A surprising early result from the PAMIP simulations were sizeable changes in the Southern Hemisphere in response to Arctic sea-ice loss and significant changes in the Northern Hemisphere in response to Antarctic sea-ice loss, even in atmosphere-only model experiments. The robustness of such apparent interhemispheric connections across models, ensemble sizes and mean states is investigated.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Extratropical Ocean Warming and Winter Arctic Sea Ice Cover since the 1990s

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (14) ◽  
pp. 5510-5522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Li ◽  
Huijun Wang ◽  
Yongqi Gao
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Wave Propagation ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Planetary Wave ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Sea Ice ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Sea ◽  
Planetary Wave Propagation ◽  
Sst Anomalies

Abstract Despite the fact that the Arctic Oscillation (AO) has reached a more neutral state and a global-warming hiatus has occurred in winter since the late 1990s, the Arctic sea ice cover (ASIC) still shows a pronounced decrease. This study reveals a close connection (R = 0.5) between the extratropical sea surface temperature (ET-SST) and ASIC in winter from 1994 to 2013. In response to one positive (negative) unit of deviation in the ET-SST pattern, the ASIC decreases (increases) in the Barents–Kara Seas and Hudson Bay (the Baffin Bay and Bering Sea) by 100–400 km2. This relationship might be maintained because of the impact of warming extratropical oceans on the polar vortex. Positive SST anomalies in the midlatitudes of the North Pacific and Atlantic (around 40°N) strengthen the equatorward planetary wave propagation, whereas negative SST anomalies in the high latitudes weaken the upward planetary wave propagation from the lower troposphere to the stratosphere. The former indicates a strengthening of the poleward meridional eddy momentum flux, and the latter implies a weakening of the poleward eddy heat flux, which favors an intensified upper-level polar night jet and a colder polar vortex, implying a stronger-than-normal polar vortex. Consequently, an anomalous cyclone emerges over the eastern Arctic, limiting or encouraging the ASIC by modulating the mean meridional heat flux. A possible reason for the long-term changes in the relationship between the ET-SST and ASIC is also discussed.

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