scholarly journals Dynamical Processes Related to the Appearance of the Okhotsk High during Early Midsummer

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (19) ◽  
pp. 4982-4994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoki Sato ◽  
Masaaki Takahashi

Abstract The authors identified an upper-level pressure anomaly pattern corresponding to the interannual variability of the Okhotsk high in midsummer (late July and early August) as a predominant anomaly pattern in the Northern Hemisphere, by using objectively analyzed data. According to the results of empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses and composite analyses, a positive pressure anomaly appeared near the tropopause over eastern Siberia in years with strong Okhotsk highs. Examination of the heat budget in the lower troposphere revealed that a negative surface temperature anomaly observed in northern Japan was brought by the advection of the climatological temperature gradient from the anomalous wind associated with the upper-level anticyclonic anomaly. It was also demonstrated that the anomaly field over Siberia does not accompany predominant vorticity forcing or Rossby wave propagation from the west with a specific phase. However, positive kinetic energy conversion from the climatological basic field to the anomaly field is estimated. The energy conversion contributes to maintaining the anomaly pattern. By the numerical experiments using a linear barotropic model, it is suggested that the upper-level anomaly pattern related to the anomalous Okhotsk high appears through the interaction with the climatological basic field, even though the external forcings are homogeneously distributed.

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 1531-1544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoki Sato ◽  
Masaaki Takahashi

Abstract Statistical features of quasi-stationary planetary waves were examined on the subtropical jet in the midsummer Northern Hemisphere by using objectively analyzed data and satellite data. As a result, a quasi-stationary wave train that is highly correlated with the midsummer climate over Japan was identified. A clear phase dependency of the appearance of waves was also confirmed. An analysis of temporal evolution and wave activity flux revealed that the eastward propagation of the wave packet starts in the Middle East, passes over East Asia, and reaches North America. The anomaly pattern is strengthened through kinetic energy conversion near the entrance of the Asian jet over the Middle East. The interaction between the anomaly pattern and the basic field contributes to the appearance of the anomalous wavelike pattern. Although the wave train is correlated with the anomaly of convective activity over the western North Pacific and the Indian Ocean, it is implied that internal dynamics are important in determining the statistical features of the appearance of anomalous quasi-stationary waves on the subtropical jet.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 1126-1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitry Smirnov ◽  
Matthew Newman ◽  
Michael A. Alexander ◽  
Young-Oh Kwon ◽  
Claude Frankignoul

Abstract The local atmospheric response to a realistic shift of the Oyashio Extension SST front in the western North Pacific is analyzed using a high-resolution (HR; 0.25°) version of the global Community Atmosphere Model, version 5 (CAM5). A northward shift in the SST front causes an atmospheric response consisting of a weak surface wind anomaly but a strong vertical circulation extending throughout the troposphere. In the lower troposphere, most of the SST anomaly–induced diabatic heating is balanced by poleward transient eddy heat and moisture fluxes. Collectively, this response differs from the circulation suggested by linear dynamics, where extratropical SST forcing produces shallow anomalous heating balanced by strong equatorward cold air advection driven by an anomalous, stationary surface low to the east. This latter response, however, is obtained by repeating the same experiment except using a relatively low-resolution (LR; 1°) version of CAM5. Comparison to observations suggests that the HR response is closer to nature than the LR response. Strikingly, HR and LR experiments have almost identical vertical profiles of . However, diagnosis of the diabatic quasigeostrophic vertical pressure velocity (ω) budget reveals that HR has a substantially stronger response, which together with upper-level mean differential thermal advection balances stronger vertical motion. The results herein suggest that changes in transient eddy heat and moisture fluxes are critical to the overall local atmospheric response to Oyashio Front anomalies, which may consequently yield a stronger downstream response. These changes may require the high resolution to be fully reproduced, warranting further experiments of this type with other high-resolution atmosphere-only and fully coupled GCMs.


Author(s):  
Yuya Hamaguchi ◽  
Yukari N. Takayabu

AbstractIn this study, the statistical relationship between tropical upper-tropospheric troughs (TUTTs) and the initiation of summertime tropical-depression type disturbances (TDDs) over the western and central North Pacific is investigated. By applying a spatiotemporal filter to the 34-year record of brightness temperature and using JRA-55 reanalysis products, TDD-event initiations are detected and classified as trough-related (TR) or non-trough-related (non-TR). The conventional understanding is that TDDs originate primarily in the lower-troposphere; our results refine this view by revealing that approximately 30% of TDDs in the 10°N-20°N latitude ranges are generated under the influence of TUTTs. Lead-lag composite analysis of both TR- and non-TR-TDDs clarifies that TR-TDDs occur under relatively dry and less convergent large-scale conditions in the lower-troposphere. This result suggests that TR-TDDs can form in a relatively unfavorable low-level environment. The three-dimensional structure of the wave activity flux reveals southward and downward propagation of wave energy in the upper troposphere that converges at the mid-troposphere around the region where TR-TDDs occur, suggesting the existence of extratropical forcing. Further, the role of dynamic forcing associated with the TUTT on the TR-TDD-initiation is analyzed using the quasi-geostrophic omega equation. The result reveals that moistening in the mid-to-upper troposphere takes place in association with the sustained dynamical ascent at the southeast side of the TUTT, which precedes the occurrence of deep convective heating. Along with a higher convective available potential energy due to the destabilizing effect of TUTTs, the moistening in the mid-to-upper troposphere also helps to prepare the environment favorable to TDDs initiation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 2627-2644
Author(s):  
Yongkun Xie ◽  
Guoxiong Wu ◽  
Yimin Liu ◽  
Jianping Huang

AbstractThe three-dimensional connections between Eurasian cooling and Arctic warming since 1979 were investigated using potential vorticity (PV) dynamics. We found that Eurasian cooling can be regulated by Arctic warming through PV adaptation and PV advection. Here, PV adaptation refers to the adaptation of PV to forcing and coherent dynamic–thermodynamic adaptation to PV change. In a PV perspective, first, the anticyclonic circulation change over the Arctic is produced by a negative PV change through PV adaptation, in which the change means the linear trend from 1979 to 2017. The negative PV change is directly regulated by Arctic warming because the vertical structure of Arctic warming is stronger at lower levels, which generates a negative PV change through the diabatic heating effect. Second, the circulation change produces a change in horizontal PV advection due to the existence of climatological PV gradients. Thus, as a balanced result, both the circulation change and PV change extend to the midlatitudes through horizontal PV advection and PV adaptation. Eventually, Eurasian cooling at the surface and in the lower troposphere is dominated by PV changes at the surface through PV adaptation. Meanwhile, enhanced Eurasian cooling in the middle troposphere is dominated by top-down influences of upper-level PV change through PV adaptation. Nevertheless, the upper-level PV changes are still contributed to by horizontal PV advection associated with Arctic warming. Overall, the general dynamics connecting Eurasian cooling with Arctic warming are demonstrated in a PV view.


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 1081-1099 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hailan Wang ◽  
Siegfried D. Schubert ◽  
Randal D. Koster ◽  
Yehui Chang

Past modeling simulations, supported by observational composites, indicate that during boreal summer, dry soil moisture anomalies in very different locations within the U.S. continental interior tend to induce the same upper-tropospheric circulation pattern: a high anomaly forms over west-central North America and a low anomaly forms to the east. The present study investigates the causes of this apparent phase locking of the upper-level circulation response and extends the investigation to other land regions in the Northern Hemisphere. The phase locking over North America is found to be induced by zonal asymmetries in the local basic state originating from North American orography. Specifically, orography-induced zonal variations of air temperature, those in the lower troposphere in particular, and surface pressure play a dominant role in placing the soil moisture–forced negative Rossby wave source (dominated by upper-level divergence anomalies) over the eastern leeside of the Western Cordillera, which subsequently produces an upper-level high anomaly over west-central North America, with the downstream anomalous circulation responses phase locked by continuity. The zonal variations of the local climatological atmospheric circulation, manifested as a climatological high over central North America, help shape the spatial pattern of the upper-level circulation responses. Considering the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, the northern Middle East exhibits similar phase locking, also induced by local orography. The Middle Eastern phase locking, however, is not as pronounced as that over North America; North America is where soil moisture anomalies have the greatest impact on the upper-tropospheric circulation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongkun Xie ◽  
Guoxiong Wu ◽  
Yimin Liu

<p>The three-dimensional connections between Eurasian cooling and Arctic warming since 1979 were investigated using potential vorticity (PV) dynamics. We found that Eurasian cooling can be regulated by Arctic warming through PV adaptation and PV advection. Here, PV adaptation refers to the adaptation of PV to forcing and coherent dynamic/thermodynamic adaptation to PV change. In a PV perspective, first, the anticyclonic circulation change over the Arctic is produced by a negative PV change through PV adaptation, in which the change means the linear trend from 1979~2017. The negative PV change is directly regulated by Arctic warming because the vertical structure of Arctic warming is stronger at lower levels, which generates a negative PV change through the diabatic heating effect. Second, the circulation change produces a change in horizontal PV advection due to the existence of climatological PV gradients. Thus, as a balanced result, both the circulation change and PV change extend to mid-latitude through horizontal PV advection and PV adaptation. Eventually, Eurasian cooling at the surface and in the lower troposphere is dominated by PV changes at the surface through PV adaptation. Meanwhile, enhanced Eurasian cooling in the middle troposphere is dominated by top-down influences of upper-level PV change through PV adaptation. Nevertheless, the upper-level PV changes are still contributed by horizontal PV advection associated with Arctic warming. Overall, the general dynamics connecting Eurasian cooling with Arctic warming is demonstrated in a PV view.</p>


2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (19) ◽  
pp. 5085-5108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Kosaka ◽  
Hisashi Nakamura

Abstract Summertime atmospheric circulation over the midlatitude western North Pacific (WNP) is influenced by anomalous convective activity near the Philippines. This meridional teleconnection, observed in monthly anomalies and known as the Pacific–Japan (PJ) pattern, is characterized by zonally elongated cyclonic and anticyclonic anomalies around the enhanced convection center and to its northeast, respectively, in the lower troposphere, with an apparent poleward phase tilt with height. The authors’ idealized two-layer linear model, whose basic state consists of a zonal subtropical jet and a pair of a monsoon system and a subtropical anticyclone, can simulate a PJ-like response against diabatic heating located between the pair. Each of the observed and simulated patterns can gain energy through barotropic and baroclinic conversions from the zonally varying baroclinic mean flow, in an efficiency comparable with that of energy generation due to the anomalous diabatic heating, indicating a characteristic of the pattern as a dry dynamical mode. In fact, the conversion efficiency is sensitive to the location of the anomaly pattern relative to the climatological-mean flow. Furthermore, the second-least damped mode identified in the idealized model bears certain resemblance with the observed PJ pattern, indicating its modal characteristics as well as a critical importance of these features in the mean field for the pattern. In addition to the PJ pattern, another meridional teleconnection pattern with high efficiency for its energy conversion is identified observationally in association with anomalous convection near the Bonin Islands. The anomalous circulation of the PJ pattern, in turn, can intensify the anomalous convective activity near the Philippines through enhancing evaporation and moisture convergence and dynamically inducing anomalous ascent. It is thus hypothesized that the PJ pattern can be regarded as a moist dynamical mode that sustains itself both via dry energy conversion and interaction with moist processes.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 3750-3766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Hua Tsou ◽  
Huang-Hsiung Hsu ◽  
Pang-Chi Hsu

Abstract This study formulates a synoptic-scale eddy (SSE) kinetic energy equation by partitioning the original field into seasonal mean circulation, intraseasonal oscillation (ISO), and SSEs to examine the multiscale interactions over the western North Pacific (WNP) in autumn. In addition, the relative contribution of synoptic-mean and synoptic-ISO interactions to SSE kinetic energy was quantitatively estimated by further separating barotropic energy conversion (CK) into synoptic-mean barotropic energy conversion (CKS−M) and synoptic-ISO barotropic energy conversion (CKS−ISO) components. The development of tropical SSE in the lower troposphere is mainly attributed to CK associated with multiscale interactions. Mean cyclonic circulation in the lower troposphere consistently provides kinetic energy to SSEs (CKS−M > 0) during the ISO westerly and easterly phases. However, CKS−ISO during the ISO westerly and easterly phases differs considerably. During the ISO westerly phase, the enhanced ISO cyclonic flow converts energy to SSEs (CKS−ISO > 0). The magnitude of the downscale energy conversion from mean and ISO to SSEs is related to the strength of the SSEs. During the ISO westerly phase, a stronger SSE extracts more kinetic energy from mean and ISO circulation. This positive feedback between SSE-mean and SSE–ISO interactions causes further strengthening of SSEs during the ISO westerly phase. By contrast, upscale energy conversion from SSEs to ISO anticyclonic flow (CKS−ISO < 0) was observed during the ISO easterly phase. The weaker SSE activity during the ISO easterly phase occurred because the mean circulation provides less energy to SSEs and, at the same time, SSEs lose energy to ISO during the ISO easterly phase. The two-way interaction between the ISO and SSEs has considerable effects on the development of tropical SSEs over the WNP in autumn.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Anibal Godoy ◽  
Norma Edit Possia ◽  
Claudia Marcela Campetella ◽  
Yanina García Skabar

The dynamic and thermodynamic processes involved in the life cycle of a cutoff low occurred in March 2007 are studied. These processes are analyzed using the vorticity and thermodynamic equations and a set of analyses generated with the BRAMS model. The main processes that explain the segregation of the subtropical part of the trough are the horizontal advection of cyclonic vorticity at high levels and warm horizontal advection at middle levels, both over the Pacific Ocean extending south to the Patagonia region, building the ridge located upstream of the trough. Increased intensity of the upper level low pressure system is mainly explained by intensification of the ridges down and upstream. The divergence effect is opposed to the horizontal advection of vorticity which explains the stagnation of the cut-off low windward of the Andes. The decay stage is dominated by warm vertical advection. Assuming the conservation of potential vorticity the analysis of parcel trajectories , allowed detecting the entrance of stratospheric air to middle levels of the lower troposphere around the cut-off low.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenjie Zeng ◽  
Yuanyuan Guo ◽  
Zhiping Wen

The interdecadal change of the BOBSM–SCSSM relationship around the late 1970s is investigated in this paper. We found that the correlation between the BOBSM and SCSSM is 0.22 in 1958–1979, while it is 0.66 in 1980–2018. Further analyses showed that the strength of the South Asian High (SAH) at upper troposphere circulation experiences an interdecadal enhancement around the late 1970s; meanwhile its meridional shift exhibits a wider range in the second subperiod. Both the interdecadal change of the strength and meridional shift of the SAH contribute to a closer relationship of the BOBSM and SCSSM through modulating the divergent field at upper troposphere. As for the external forcing, the basin warming of the Indian Ocean after the late 1970s may serve as a relatively primary factor, which could induce a consistent background flow that may favor a closer BOBSM–SCSSM relationship in the second period. It is noted that the Indian Ocean warming is related to high pressure anomaly widely lying to the south of 20°N at upper troposphere, accompanied by the low pressure anomaly center to the north of 20°N. And this kind of upper-level circulation may result in strong westerly anomaly at the domain where the pressure gradient is large and then modulate the onset of the BOBSM and SCSSM in 1980–2018 through changing the upper-level divergent field. Besides, the low troposphere circulation associated with Indian Ocean warming is featured by the zonal-elongated high pressure anomaly spanning from the BOB and SCS to the northwest Pacific. The above coupling of the upper and lower troposphere, as a larger-scale consistent background flow controls the BOB and SCS, can modulate the interannual variation of the BOBSM and SCSSM synchronously and contributes to the closer relationship of the BOBSM and SCSSM in the second subperiod.


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