Comparison of Wave Packets Associated with Extratropical Transition and Winter Cyclones

2015 ◽  
Vol 143 (5) ◽  
pp. 1782-1803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan D. Torn ◽  
Gregory J. Hakim
Keyword(s):  
Wave Packets ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Moisture Flux ◽  
Meridional Wind ◽  
Extratropical Transition ◽  
Climate Forecast System Reanalysis ◽  
Atlantic Basin ◽  
Moisture Flux Convergence ◽  
Development Structure ◽  
Midlatitude Cyclones

Abstract Differences in the development of wave packets associated with midlatitude cyclones and the extratropical transition (ET) of tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific (WNP) and Atlantic basins are diagnosed observationally by compositing Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) data over a 32-yr period and applying the null hypothesis of no difference in the development, structure, propagation, or downstream extent. While the development of midlatitude cyclones during the fall (August–October) and winter (November–March) amplifies a preexisting wave packet moving through the midlatitude storm track, ET is associated with the quasi-stationary amplification of the midlatitude flow. The ET cases involving the interaction of the decaying TC with a preexisting midlatitude trough are associated with a greater downstream amplitude and longer-lasting downstream response than ET cases that do not involve the interaction with a trough. In the WNP, ET wave packets have greater amplitude than those associated with winter midlatitude cyclones, but are similar to those associated with fall midlatitude cyclones. Moreover, ET events are associated with larger wavelengths and a statistically significant meridional wind anomaly farther downstream. By contrast, ET wave packets in the Atlantic basin have less amplitude and do not reach as far downstream as wave packets associated with fall and winter cyclones. WNP ET is characterized by larger integrated moisture flux convergence and, thus, latent heat release relative to its midlatitude counterpart, while Atlantic basin ET has smaller moisture flux convergence compared to midlatitude cyclones, which could explain why Atlantic ET is associated with less-amplified wave packets.

scholarly journals A Description and Evaluation of an Automated Approach for Feature-Based Tracking of Rossby Wave Packets

2014 ◽  
Vol 142 (10) ◽  
pp. 3505-3527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew B. Souders ◽  
Brian. A. Colle ◽  
Edmund K. M. Chang
Keyword(s):  
Rossby Wave ◽  
Wave Packets ◽  
Cost Optimization ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Meridional Wind ◽  
Hybrid Technique ◽  
Local Maxima ◽  
Temporal Smoothing ◽  
Feature Based

Abstract This paper describes an automated approach to track Rossby wave packets (RWPs), and the sensitivity of various tracking parameters and methods used in filtering the raw data in the feature-based tracking. The NCEP–NCAR reanalysis meridional wind and geopotential height data at 300 hPa every 6 h were spectrally filtered using a Hilbert transform technique under the assumption that RWPs propagate along a waveguide defined by the 14-day running average of the 300-hPa wind. After some spatial and temporal smoothing, the local maxima in RWP amplitude (WPA) were tracked using two objective techniques: a point-based cost optimization routine and a hybrid approach using point identification and object-based tracking following rules. A variation of the total energy flux term of the eddy kinetic energy equation was used to subjectively verify RWP tracks in order to compare the performance of each tracking method. When tracking methods are verified over two winter seasons, the hybrid technique outperformed point-based tracking, particularly for track duration and propagation. Problems with tracking were found to be most common during periods when two RWPs merge, one RWP splits into multiple packets, or an RWP moves from one storm track to another. RWPs are found to move irregularly rather than linearly, with their motion and intensity best described as pulse like. The sensitivity to some of the parameters used in the tracking was also explored.

scholarly journals Assessing Future Changes in the East Asian Summer Monsoon Using CMIP5 Coupled Models

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (19) ◽  
pp. 7662-7675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyong-Hwan Seo ◽  
Jung Ok ◽  
Jun-Hyeok Son ◽  
Dong-Hyun Cha
Keyword(s):  
Summer Monsoon ◽  
East Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Moisture Flux ◽  
Moisture Convergence ◽  
Cmip5 Models ◽  
Moisture Flux Convergence ◽  
The North ◽  
Asian Summer

Abstract Future changes in the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) are estimated from historical and Representative Concentration Pathway 6.0 (RCP6) experiments of the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). The historical runs show that, like the CMIP3 models, the CMIP5 models produce slightly smaller precipitation. A moisture budget analysis illustrates that this precipitation deficit is due to an underestimation in evaporation and ensuing moisture flux convergence. Of the two components of the moisture flux convergence (i.e., moisture convergence and horizontal moist advection), moisture convergence associated with mass convergence is underestimated to a greater degree. Precipitation is anticipated to increase by 10%–15% toward the end of the twenty-first century over the major monsoonal front region. A statistically significant increase is predicted to occur mostly over the Baiu region and to the north and northeast of the Korean Peninsula. This increase is attributed to an increase in evaporation and moist flux convergence (with enhanced moisture convergence contributing the most) induced by the northwestward strengthening of the North Pacific subtropical high (NPSH), a characteristic feature of the future EASM that occurred in CMIP5 simulations. Along the northern and northwestern flank of the strengthened NPSH, intensified southerly or southwesterly winds lead to the increase in moist convergence, enhancing precipitation over these areas. However, future precipitation over the East China Sea is projected to decrease. In the EASM domain, a local mechanism prevails, with increased moisture and moisture convergence leading to a greater increase in moist static energy in the lower troposphere than in the upper troposphere, reducing tropospheric stability.

Local Finite-Amplitude Wave Activity as a Diagnostic for Rossby Wave Packets

2018 ◽  
Vol 146 (12) ◽  
pp. 4099-4114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Ghinassi ◽  
Georgios Fragkoulidis ◽  
Volkmar Wirth
Keyword(s):  
Rossby Wave ◽  
Model Simulation ◽  
Wave Packets ◽  
Meridional Wind ◽  
Finite Amplitude ◽  
Wave Activity ◽  
Amplitude Wave ◽  
High Impact Weather ◽  
Finite Amplitude Wave Activity ◽  
Isentropic Coordinates

AbstractUpper-tropospheric Rossby wave packets (RWPs) are important dynamical features, because they are often associated with weather systems and sometimes act as precursors to high-impact weather. The present work introduces a novel diagnostic to identify RWPs and to quantify their amplitude. It is based on the local finite-amplitude wave activity (LWA) of Huang and Nakamura, which is generalized to the primitive equations in isentropic coordinates. The new diagnostic is applied to a specific episode containing large-amplitude RWPs and compared with a more traditional diagnostic based on the envelope of the meridional wind. In this case, LWA provides a more coherent picture of the RWPs and their zonal propagation. This difference in performance is demonstrated more explicitly in the framework of an idealized barotropic model simulation, where LWA is able to follow an RWP into its fully nonlinear stage, including cutoff formation and wave breaking, while the envelope diagnostic yields reduced amplitudes in such situations.

scholarly journals Summertime precipitation in Hokkaido and Kyushu, Japan in response to global warming

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daichi Takabatake ◽  
Masaru Inatsu
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Dynamical Downscaling ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Moisture Flux ◽  
Specific Humidity ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Moisture Flux Convergence

Abstract We analyzed a large ensemble dataset called the database for Policy Decision Making for Future climate change (d4PDF), which contains 60-km resolution atmospheric general circulation model output and 20-km resolution dynamical downscaling for the Japanese domain. The increase in moisture and precipitation, and their global warming response in June–July–August were described focusing on the differences between Hokkaido and Kyushu. The results suggested that the specific humidity increased almost following the Clausius Clapeyron relation, but the change in stationary circulation suppressed the precipitation increase, except for in western Kyushu. The + 4 K climate in Hokkaido would be as hot and humid as the present climate in Kyushu. The circulation change related to the southward shift of the jet stream and an eastward shift of the Bonin high weakened the moisture flux convergence via a stationary field over central Japan including eastern Kyushu. The transient eddy activity counteracted the increase in humidity, so that the moisture flux convergence and precipitation did not change much over Hokkaido. Because the contribution of tropical cyclones to the total precipitation was at most 10%, the decrease in the number of tropical cyclones did not explain the predicted change in precipitation.

scholarly journals Coupling of Precipitation and Cloud Structures in Oceanic Extratropical Cyclones to Large-Scale Moisture Flux Convergence

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (23) ◽  
pp. 9565-9584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Wong ◽  
Catherine M. Naud ◽  
Brian H. Kahn ◽  
Longtao Wu ◽  
Eric J. Fetzer
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Moisture Flux ◽  
Extratropical Cyclones ◽  
Flux Divergence ◽  
Moisture Flux Convergence ◽  
Convective Clouds ◽  
Moisture Advection ◽  
Deep Convective Clouds ◽  
Stratiform Clouds ◽  
High Level

Precipitation (from TMPA) and cloud structures (from MODIS) in extratropical cyclones (ETCs) are modulated by phases of large-scale moisture flux convergence (from MERRA-2) in the sectors of ETCs, which are studied in a new coordinate system with directions of both surface warm fronts (WFs) and surface cold fronts (CFs) fixed. The phase of moisture flux convergence is described by moisture dynamical convergence Qcnvg and moisture advection Qadvt. Precipitation and occurrence frequencies of deep convective clouds are sensitive to changes in Qcnvg, while moisture tendency is sensitive to changes in Qadvt. Increasing Qcnvg and Qadvt during the advance of the WF is associated with increasing occurrences of both deep convective and high-level stratiform clouds. A rapid decrease in Qadvt with a relatively steady Qcnvg during the advance of the CF is associated with high-level cloud distribution weighting toward deep convective clouds. Behind the CF (cold sector or area with polar air intrusion), the moisture flux is divergent with abundant low- and midlevel clouds. From deepening to decaying stages, the pre-WF and WF sectors experience high-level clouds shifting to more convective and less stratiform because of decreasing Qadvt with relatively steady Qcnvg, and the CF experiences shifting from high-level to midlevel clouds. Sectors of moisture flux divergence are less influenced by cyclone evolution. Surface evaporation is the largest in the cold sector and the CF during the deepening stage. Deepening cyclones are more efficient in poleward transport of water vapor.

Vertically integrated moisture flux convergence over Iran

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 3561-3582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Darand ◽  
Farshad Pazhoh
Keyword(s):  
Moisture Flux ◽  
Moisture Flux Convergence

Interaction of North Atlantic baroclinic wave packets and the Mediterranean storm track

2013 ◽  
Vol 140 (680) ◽  
pp. 754-765 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Ahmadi-Givi ◽  
M. Nasr-Esfahany ◽  
A. R. Mohebalhojeh
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Wave Packets ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Baroclinic Wave ◽  
The Mediterranean

Variations of Northern Hemisphere Storm Track and Extratropical Cyclone Activity Associated with the Madden–Julian Oscillation

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (13) ◽  
pp. 4799-4818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanjuan Guo ◽  
Toshiaki Shinoda ◽  
Jialin Lin ◽  
Edmund K. M. Chang
Keyword(s):  
Storm Track ◽  
Meridional Wind ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Boreal Winter ◽  
Madden Julian Oscillation ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Cyclone Activity ◽  
Intraseasonal Variations ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Cyclone Frequency

This study investigates the intraseasonal variations of the Northern Hemispheric storm track associated with the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) during the extended boreal winter (November–April) using 36 yr (1979–2014) of reanalysis data from ERA-Interim. Two methods have been used to diagnose storm-track variations. In the first method, the storm track is quantified by the temporal-filtered variance of 250-hPa meridional wind (vv250) or mean sea level pressure (pp). The intraseasonal anomalies of vv250 composited for eight MJO phases are characterized by a zonal band of strong positive (or negative) anomalies meandering from the Pacific all the way across North America and the Atlantic into northern Europe, with weaker anomalies of opposite sign at one or both flanks. The results based on pp are consistent with those based on vv250 except for larger zonal variations, which may be induced by surface topography. In the second method, an objective cyclone-tracking scheme has been used to track the extratropical cyclones that compose the storm track. The MJO-composite anomalies of the “accumulated” cyclone activity, a quantity that includes contributions from both the cyclone frequency and cyclone mean intensity, are very similar to those based on pp. Further analysis demonstrates that major contribution comes from variations in the cyclone frequency. Further analysis suggests that the intraseasonal variations of the storm track can be primarily attributed to the variations of the mean flow that responds to the anomalous MJO convections in the tropics, with possible contribution also from the moisture variations.

Observed Patterns of Month-to-Month Storm-Track Variability and Their Relationship to the Background Flow*

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 1420-1437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin J. Wettstein ◽  
John M. Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Geopotential Height ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Meridional Wind ◽  
Storm Tracks ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Annular Mode ◽  
The North ◽  
Jet Variability ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation

Abstract Month-to-month storm-track variability is investigated via EOF analyses performed on ERA-40 monthly-averaged high-pass filtered daily 850-hPa meridional heat flux and the variances of 300-hPa meridional wind and 500-hPa height. The analysis is performed both in hemispheric and sectoral domains of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Patterns characterized as “pulsing” and “latitudinal shifting” of the climatological-mean storm tracks emerge as the leading sectoral patterns of variability. Based on the analysis presented, storm-track variability on the spatial scale of the two Northern Hemisphere sectors appears to be largely, but perhaps not completely, independent. Pulsing and latitudinally shifting storm tracks are accompanied by zonal wind anomalies consistent with eddy-forced accelerations and geopotential height anomalies that project strongly on the dominant patterns of geopotential height variability. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)–Northern Hemisphere annular mode (NAM) is associated with a pulsing of the Atlantic storm track and a meridional displacement of the upper-tropospheric jet exit region, whereas the eastern Atlantic (EA) pattern is associated with a latitudinally shifting storm track and an extension or retraction of the upper-tropospheric jet. Analogous patterns of storm-track and upper-tropospheric jet variability are associated with the western Pacific (WP) and Pacific–North America (PNA) patterns. Wave–mean flow relationships shown here are more clearly defined than in previous studies and are shown to extend through the depth of the troposphere. The Southern Hemisphere annular mode (SAM) is associated with a latitudinally shifting storm track over the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans and a pulsing South Pacific storm track. The patterns of storm-track variability are shown to be related to simple distortions of the climatological-mean upper-tropospheric jet.

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