scholarly journals Multimodel Future Projections of Wintertime North Atlantic and North Pacific Tropospheric Jets: A Bayesian Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 2533-2545 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Whittleston ◽  
K. A. McColl ◽  
D. Entekhabi

The impact of future greenhouse gas forcing on the North Atlantic and North Pacific tropospheric jets remains uncertain. Opposing changes in the latitudinal temperature gradient—forced by amplified lower-atmospheric Arctic warming versus upper-atmospheric tropical warming—make robust predictions a challenge. Despite some models simulating more realistic jets than others, it remains the prevailing approach to treat each model as equally probable (i.e., democratic weighting). This study compares democratically weighted projections to an alternative Bayesian-weighting method based on the ability of models to simulate historical wintertime jet climatology. The novel Bayesian technique is developed to be broadly applicable to high-dimensional fields. Results show the Bayesian weighting can reduce systematic bias and suggest the wintertime jet response to greenhouse gas forcing is largely independent of this historical bias (i.e., not state dependent). A future strengthening and narrowing is seen in both winter jets, particularly at the upper levels. The widely reported poleward shift at the level of the eddy-driven jet does not appear statistically robust, particularly over the North Atlantic, indicating sensitivity to current model deficiencies.

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1806-1823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela J. Colbert ◽  
Brian J. Soden ◽  
Ben P. Kirtman

Abstract The impact of natural and anthropogenic climate change on tropical cyclone (TC) tracks in the western North Pacific (WNP) is examined using a beta and advection model (BAM) to isolate the influence of changes in the large-scale steering flow from changes in genesis location. The BAM captures many of the observed changes in TC tracks due to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), while little change is noted for the Pacific decadal oscillation and all-India monsoon rainfall in either observations or BAM simulations. Analysis with the BAM suggests that the observed shifts in the average track between the phases of ENSO are primarily due to changes in the large-scale steering flow, with changes in genesis location playing a secondary role. Potential changes in TC tracks over the WNP due to anthropogenic climate change are also assessed. Ensemble mean projections are downscaled from 17 CMIP3 models and 26 CMIP5 models. Statistically significant decreases [~(4%–6%)] in westward moving TCs and increases [~(5%–7%)] in recurving ocean TCs are found. These correspond to projected decreases of 3–5 TCs per decade over the Philippines and increases of 1–3 TCs per decade over the central WNP. The projected changes are primarily caused by a reduction in the easterlies. This slows the storm movement, allowing more time for the beta drift to carry the storm northward and recurve. A previous study found similar results in the North Atlantic. Taken together, these results suggest that a weakening of the mean atmospheric circulation in response to anthropogenic warming will lead to fewer landfalling storms over the North Atlantic and WNP.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho-Nam Cheung ◽  
Nour-Eddine Omrani

<p>Atmospheric blocking (“blocking”) is a crucial dynamic driver of extreme weather (e.g., severe/long-lasting cold spells, heat waves, drought and flood) over the extratropical region, where blocking occurs most frequently in boreal winter over the Euro-Atlantic and North Pacific sectors. In the state-of-the-art climate models, however, blocking frequency over the mid-latitude Euro-Atlantic sector is generally underestimated. Recent studies have pinpointed the importance of air-sea interactions over the North Atlantic in the formation of Euro-Atlantic blocking. In this study, we will demonstrate that the occurrence of Euro-Atlantic blocking is also related to the remote forcing from the North Pacific. Based on novel semi-idealized atmospheric general-circulation model experiments, we depict the impact of tropical and extratropical SST over different basins on the physical processes of Euro-Atlantic blocking events. We will show that the SST fronts over the mid-latitude North Atlantic and North Pacific jointly contribute to the occurrence of Euro-Atlantic blocking, whereas the contribution of tropical SST is relatively small. A budget analysis of the vorticity equation reveals that both high-frequency (< 8 days) and low-frequency (> 8 days) forcing contribute to the formation of Euro-Atlantic blocking events. The high-frequency forcing is associated with the intensification of an extratropical cyclone over the northwestern/central Atlantic, which is related to the North Atlantic storm tracks. The low-frequency forcing is associated with the eastward propagation of a Rossby wavetrain from North America to the Euro-Atlantic region. We will demonstrate how these physical processes are attributed to the North Atlantic and North Pacific SST fronts. Overall, our results provide new insights into the fundamental dynamics of Euro-Atlantic blocking events.</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 840-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérôme Saulière ◽  
David James Brayshaw ◽  
Brian Hoskins ◽  
Michael Blackburn

Abstract Building on previous studies of the basic ingredients of the North Atlantic storm track (examining land–sea contrast, orography, and SST), this article investigates the impact of Eurasian topography and Pacific SST anomalies on North Pacific and Atlantic storm tracks through a hierarchy of atmospheric GCM simulations using idealized boundary conditions in the Hadley Centre HadGAM1 atmospheric circulation model. The Himalaya–Tibet mountain complex is found to play a crucial role in shaping the North Pacific storm track. The northward deflection of the westerly flow around northern Tibet generates an extensive pool of very cold air in the northeastern tip of the Asian continent, which strengthens the meridional temperature gradient and favors baroclinic growth in the western Pacific. The Kuroshio SST front is also instrumental in strengthening the Pacific storm track through its impact on near-surface baroclinicity, while the warm waters around Indonesia tend to weaken it through the impact on baroclinicity of stationary Rossby waves propagating poleward from the convective heating regions. Three mechanisms by which the Atlantic storm track may be affected by changes in the boundary conditions upstream of the Rockies are discussed. In the model configuration used here, stationary Rossby waves emanating from Tibet appear to weaken the North Atlantic storm track substantially, whereas those generated over the cold waters off Peru appear to strengthen it. Changes in eddy-driven surface winds over the Pacific generally appear to modify the flow over the Rocky Mountains, leading to consistent modifications in the Atlantic storm track. The evidence for each of these mechanisms is, however, ultimately equivocal in these simulations.


Trudy VNIRO ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
A. S. Krovnin

Based on the analysis of changes in the spatial structure of climatic variations in the Northern Hemisphere before and after the climatic regime shift in the 1980s, the modes of interaction between climatic processes in the North Atlantic and North Pacific have been identified. The first (“western”) mode prevailed until the late 1980s, reflected the impact of the North Pacific climatic processes on the North Atlantic climate as a result of interaction of two mutually independent Pacific teleconnection patterns (Pacific/North American and Tropical/Northern Hemisphere patterns) with the West Atlantic pattern. The pronounced eastward shift of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) centers from the late 1970s resulted in establishment of the “eastern” mode of interaction between the aquatories under consideration. The climatic changes originated in the North Atlantic basin propagated in the western half of the North Pacific via the system of atmospheric teleconnection patterns over Eurasia (“atmospheric bridge”). The establishment of the “eastern” mode became obviously one of the reasons of sharp warming of surface waters in the western and central areas of the North Pacific from the end of the 1980s, which favored the beginning of a new “salmon epoch” in its northwestern part. Along with the synchronous relationships between the Eurasian atmospheric modes and North Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies, an asynchronous response in the ocean to longitudinal shifts in position of the NAO centers, was found. The atmospheric signal associated with its southern center propagated eastward along the equatorial zone and appeared in the southwestern sector of the North Pacific 5–6 years later.


Author(s):  
Robert H. Ellison

Prompted by the convulsions of the late eighteenth century and inspired by the expansion of evangelicalism across the North Atlantic world, Protestant Dissenters from the 1790s eagerly subscribed to a millennial vision of a world transformed through missionary activism and religious revival. Voluntary societies proliferated in the early nineteenth century to spread the gospel and transform society at home and overseas. In doing so, they engaged many thousands of converts who felt the call to share their experience of personal conversion with others. Though social respectability and business methods became a notable feature of Victorian Nonconformity, the religious populism of the earlier period did not disappear and religious revival remained a key component of Dissenting experience. The impact of this revitalization was mixed. On the one hand, growth was not sustained in the long term and, to some extent, involvement in interdenominational activity undermined denominational identity; on the other hand, Nonconformists gained a social and political prominence they had not enjoyed since the middle of the seventeenth century and their efforts laid the basis for the twentieth-century explosion of evangelicalism in Africa, Asia, and South America.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 2111-2130
Author(s):  
Woo Geun Cheon ◽  
Jong-Seong Kug

AbstractIn the framework of a sea ice–ocean general circulation model coupled to an energy balance atmospheric model, an intensity oscillation of Southern Hemisphere (SH) westerly winds affects the global ocean circulation via not only the buoyancy-driven teleconnection (BDT) mode but also the Ekman-driven teleconnection (EDT) mode. The BDT mode is activated by the SH air–sea ice–ocean interactions such as polynyas and oceanic convection. The ensuing variation in the Antarctic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) that is indicative of the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation exerts a significant influence on the abyssal circulation of the globe, particularly the Pacific. This controls the bipolar seesaw balance between deep and bottom waters at the equator. The EDT mode controlled by northward Ekman transport under the oscillating SH westerly winds generates a signal that propagates northward along the upper ocean and passes through the equator. The variation in the western boundary current (WBC) is much stronger in the North Atlantic than in the North Pacific, which appears to be associated with the relatively strong and persistent Mindanao Current (i.e., the southward flowing WBC of the North Pacific tropical gyre). The North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation is controlled by salt advected northward by the North Atlantic WBC.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Ritchie ◽  
Kimberly M. Wood ◽  
Oscar G. Rodríguez-Herrera ◽  
Miguel F. Piñeros ◽  
J. Scott Tyo

Abstract The deviation-angle variance technique (DAV-T), which was introduced in the North Atlantic basin for tropical cyclone (TC) intensity estimation, is adapted for use in the North Pacific Ocean using the “best-track center” application of the DAV. The adaptations include changes in preprocessing for different data sources [Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-East (GOES-E) in the Atlantic, stitched GOES-E–Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-West (GOES-W) in the eastern North Pacific, and the Multifunctional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) in the western North Pacific], and retraining the algorithm parameters for different basins. Over the 2007–11 period, DAV-T intensity estimation in the western North Pacific results in a root-mean-square intensity error (RMSE, as measured by the maximum sustained surface winds) of 14.3 kt (1 kt ≈ 0.51 m s−1) when compared to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center best track, utilizing all TCs to train and test the algorithm. The RMSE obtained when testing on an individual year and training with the remaining set lies between 12.9 and 15.1 kt. In the eastern North Pacific the DAV-T produces an RMSE of 13.4 kt utilizing all TCs in 2005–11 when compared with the National Hurricane Center best track. The RMSE for individual years lies between 9.4 and 16.9 kt. The complex environment in the western North Pacific led to an extension to the DAV-T that includes two different radii of computation, producing a parametric surface that relates TC axisymmetry to intensity. The overall RMSE is reduced by an average of 1.3 kt in the western North Pacific and 0.8 kt in the eastern North Pacific. These results for the North Pacific are comparable with previously reported results using the DAV for the North Atlantic basin.


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