The Tropical Transition of the October 1996 Medicane in the Western Mediterranean Sea: A Warm Seclusion Event

2017 ◽  
Vol 145 (7) ◽  
pp. 2575-2595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edoardo Mazza ◽  
Uwe Ulbrich ◽  
Rupert Klein

The processes leading to the tropical transition of the October 1996 medicane in the western Mediterranean are investigated on the basis of a 50-member ensemble of regional climate model (RCM) simulations. By comparing the composites of transitioning and nontransitioning cyclones it is shown that standard extratropical dynamics are responsible for the cyclogenesis and that the transition results from a warm seclusion process. As the initial thermal asymmetries and vertical tilt of the cyclones are reduced, a warm core forms in the lower troposphere. It is demonstrated that in the transitioning cyclones, the upper-tropospheric warm core is also a result of the seclusion process. Conversely, the warm core remains confined below 600 hPa in the nontransitioning systems. In the baroclinic stage, the transitioning cyclones are characterized by larger vertical wind shear and intensification rates. The resulting stronger low-level circulation in turn is responsible for significantly larger latent and sensible heat fluxes throughout the seclusion process.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Wang ◽  
John C. Moore ◽  
Duoying Ji

Abstract. The thermodynamics of the ocean and atmosphere partly determine variability in tropical cyclone (TC) number and intensity and are readily accessible from climate model output, but a complete description of TC variability requires much more dynamical data than climate models can provide at present. Genesis potential index (GPI) and ventilation index (VI) are combinations of potential intensity, vertical wind shear, relative humidity, midlevel entropy deficit, and absolute vorticity that can quantify both thermodynamic and dynamic forcing of TC activity under different climate states. Here we use six CMIP5 models that have run the RCP4.5 experiment and the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) stratospheric aerosol injection G4 experiment, to calculate the two TC indices over the 2020 to 2069 period across the 6 ocean basins that generate tropical cyclones. Globally, GPI under G4 is lower than under RCP4.5, though both have a slight increasing trend. Spatial patterns in the effectiveness of geoengineering show reductions in TC in the North Atlantic basin, and Northern Indian Ocean in all models except NorESM1-M. In the North Pacific, most models also show relative reductions under G4. Most models project potential intensity and relative humidity to be the dominant variables affecting genesis potential. Changes in vertical wind shear are significant, but both it and vorticity exhibit relatively small changes with large variation across both models and ocean basins. We find that tropopause temperature is not a useful addition to sea surface temperature in projecting TC genesis, despite radiative heating of the stratosphere due to the aerosol injection, and heating of the upper troposphere affecting static stability and potential intensity. Thus, simplified statistical methods that quantify the thermodynamic state of the major genesis basins may reasonably be used to examine stratospheric aerosol geoengineering impacts on TC activity.


MAUSAM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-230
Author(s):  
O. P. SINGH ◽  
K. RUPA KUMAR ◽  
P. K. MISHRA ◽  
K. KRISHNA KUMAR ◽  
S. K. PATWARDHAN

Lkkj & bl 'kks/k&i= esa HkweaMyh; tyok;q ifjorZu ds ifj.kkeLo:i 'krkCnh ds e/; ¼2041&60½ ds nkSjku ,f’k;kbZ xzh"edkyhu ekulwu ds fof’k"V y{k.kksa dk iwokZuqeku djus ds mÌs’; ls vuqdj.k iz;ksxksa ds ifj.kke izLrqr fd, x, gSaA blds fy, gSMys tyok;q iwokZuqeku vkSj vuqla/kku dsUnz] ;w- ds- dk {ks=h; tyok;q ekWMy gSM vkj- ,e- 2 dk mi;ksx fd;k x;k gSA ,f’k;kbZ {ks= ds fy, 20 o"kksZa dh vof/k ds nks vuqdj.k iz;ksx fd, x, gSa uker% igyk] 1990 Lrjksa ds vuq:i xzhu gkml xSl lkanz.k dh fu/kkZfjr ek=k] ftls dUVªksy ¼lh- Vh- ,y-½ iz;ksx dgk x;k gS vkSj nwljk 1990 ls ysdj 2041&60 rd ds fy, xzhu gkml xSl lkanz.k ds okf"kZd feJ.k esa 1 izfr’kr dh o`f) lesr ftls vkxs xzhu gkml xSl ¼th- ,p- th-½ iz;ksx dgk x;k gSA xzhu gkml xSl lkanz.k esa okf"kZd feJ.k esa 1 izfr’kr dh o`f) tyok;q ifjorZu ds var% ljdkjh iSuy vkbZ- ih- lh- lh- }kjk rS;kj dh xbZ ;kstuk ls yh xbZ gSA bu iz;ksxksa ls 'krkCnh ds e/; ds nkSjku ,f’k;kbZ xzh"edkyhu ekulwu esa ik, tkus okys fof’k"V y{k.kksa esa gksus okys dqN ifjorZuksa dk irk pyk gS ftudk c<+s gq, ekuotfur mRltZdksa ds dkj.k gksuk LokHkkfor gSA lewph ekulwu _rq ds nkSjku Hkkjrh; {ks= ij fuEu {kksHk eaMy ¼850 gSDVkikLdy½ esa ekulwu nzks.kh ¼,e- Vh- ½ dk mRrj dh vksj lkekU; :i ls c<+uk lcls vf/kd egRoiw.kZ ifjorZu izrhr gksrk gSA vuqdj.k ifj.kkeksa ls ekulwu _rq ds nkSjku vjc lkxj esa leqnz Lrj nkc ¼,l- ,y- ih-½ esa yxHkx 1&2 gS- ik- dh o`f) dk irk pyk gS ftlds ifj.kkeLo:i fuEu {kksHk eaMy esa vlkekU; izfrpØokr gksrs gSaA bldk vFkZ ;g gqvk fd fuEu Lrjh; tsV ¼,y- ,y- ts-½ vkSj vjc lkxj esa ekulwu dh /kkjk det+ksj iM+ tkrh gSA ;g ekWMy m".krj leqnz lrg dh fLFkfr;ksa esa fgan egklkxj ds mRrj esa ekulwuh pØokrh; fo{kksHkksa dh vko`fr esa deh dks vuqdfjr djrk gS tks gky gh ds n’kdksa esa ekulwu ds vonkcksa dh vko`fr esa deh dh izo`fr;ksa ds vuq:i ikbZ xbZ gSA bu iz;ksxksa ls ;g irk pyrk gS fd ikfdLrku vkSj mlds lehiorhZ mRrjh if’peh Hkkjr ds Åij Å"ek fuEunkc rhoz gks ldrk gS vkSj ekulwu _rq           ds nkSjku FkksM+k iwoZ dh vksj c<+ ldrh gSA ;g ekWMy] Hkkjrh; leqnz ds nf{k.kh Hkkxksa esa 8° & 10° m- ds chp 100 gS- ik- ¼Vh- bZ- ts- dksj dk Lrj½ ij fo’ks"kdj ekulwu ds iwokZ)Z ds nkSjku m".kdfVca/kh; iwokZfHkeq[kh tsV¼Vh- bZ- ts-½ dks izHkkfor djrk gSA The paper presents the results of simulation experiments aimed at predicting the characteristic features of Asian Summer Monsoon during the middle of the century (2041-60) resulting from global climate change. The model used is HadRM2 regional climate model of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, UK. Two simulation experiments of 20 years length have been performed for the Asian domain, namely, one with a fixed amount of greenhouse gas concentration corresponding to 1990 levels called the 'control' (CTL) experiment and the other with the annual compound increase of 1 % in the greenhouse gas concentration for 2041-60 from 1990 onwards called the 'greenhouse gas' (GHG) experiment. The annual compound increment of 1 %, in the greenhouse gas concentration has been adopted from the projection given by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The experiments have brought out some of the changes in the characteristic features of mid-century Asian summer monsoons that are expected to occur due to increased anthropogenic emissions. The most significant change seems to be a general northward shift of the monsoon trough (MT) in the lower troposphere (850 hPa) throughout the monsoon season over the Indian region. The simulation results have shown an increase of about 1-2 hPa in the sea level pressure (SLP) over the Arabian Sea during the monsoon resulting in an anomalous anticyclone over there in the lower troposphere. This would mean the weakening of Low Level Jet (LLJ) and the Arabian sea branch of the monsoon current. The model has simulated a decrease in the frequency of the monsoonal cyclonic disturbances over the north Indian Ocean under the warmer sea surface conditions which conforms to the observed decreasing trends in the frequency of monsoon depressions in recent decades. The experiments have shown that the Heat Low over Pakistan and adjoining northwest India, may intensify and shift slightly eastward during the monsoon. The model has simulated the strengthening of Tropical Easterly Jet (TEJ) at          100 hPa (the location of TEJ core ) over the southern parts of Indian sea between 8° - 10° N, especially during the first half of the monsoon season.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Semenov ◽  
Xiangdong Zhang ◽  
Annette Rinke ◽  
Wolfgang Dorn ◽  
Klaus Dethloff

Various temporal and spatial changes have manifested in Arctic storm activities, including the occurrence of the anomalously intense storms in the summers of 2012 and 2016, along with the amplified warming and rapidly decreased sea ice. To detect the variability of and changes in storm activity and understand its role in sea ice changes, we examined summer storm count and intensity year-by-year from ensemble hindcast simulations with an Arctic regional coupled climate model for the period of 1948–2008. The results indicated that the model realistically simulated the climatological spatial structure of the storm activity, characterized by the storm count and intensity. The simulated storm count captures the variability derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) reanalysis, though the simulated one is higher than that in the reanalysis. This could be attributed to the higher resolution of the model that may better represent smaller and shallower cyclones. The composite analysis shows that intense storms tend to form a low-pressure pattern with centers over the Kara Sea and Chukchi Sea, respectively, generating cyclonic circulation over the North Atlantic and North Pacific Arctic Ocean. The former drives intensification of the transpolar drift and Fram Strait sea ice export, and the latter suppresses thick ice transport from the Canada Basin to the Beaufort–Chukchi Seas, in spite of an increase in sea ice transport to the East Siberian Sea. Associated with these changes in sea ice transport, sea ice concentration and thickness show large decreases in the Barents–Kara Seas and the Chukchi–East-Siberian Seas, respectively. Energy budgets analysis suggests that more numerous intense storms substantially decrease the downward net sea ice heat fluxes, including net radiative fluxes, turbulent fluxes, and oceanic heat fluxes, compared with that when a lower number of intense storms occur. The decrease in the heat fluxes could be attributable to an increased cloudiness and the resultant reduction of downward shortwave radiation, as well as a destabilized boundary layer induced increase in upward turbulent fluxes.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahima Diba ◽  
Moctar Camara ◽  
Arona Diedhiou

This study investigates the changes in West African monsoon features during warm years using the Regional Climate Model version 4.5 (RegCM4.5). The analysis uses 30 years of datasets of rainfall, surface temperature and wind parameters (from 1980 to 2009). We performed a simulation at a spatial resolution of 50 km with the RegCM4.5 model driven by ERA-Interim reanalysis. The rainfall amount is weaker over the Sahel (western and central) and the Guinea region for the warmest years compared to the coldest ones. The analysis of heat fluxes show that the sensible (latent) heat flux is stronger (weaker) during the warmest (coldest) years. When considering the rainfall events, there is a decrease of the number of rainy days over the Guinea Coast (in the South of Cote d’Ivoire, of Ghana and of Benin) and the western and eastern Sahel during warm years. The maximum length of consecutive wet days decreases over the western and eastern Sahel, while the consecutive dry days increase mainly over the Sahel band during the warm years. The percentage of very warm days and warm nights increase mainly over the Sahel domain and the Guinea region. The model also simulates an increase of the warm spell duration index in the whole Sahel domain and over the Guinea Coast in warm years. The analysis of the wind dynamic exhibits during warm years a weakening of the monsoon flow in the lower levels, a strengthening in the magnitude of the African Easterly Jet (AEJ) in the mid-troposphere and a slight increase of the Tropical Easterly Jet (TEJ) in the upper levels of the atmosphere during warm years.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Zou ◽  
Chesheng Zhan ◽  
Ruxin Zhao ◽  
Peihua Qin ◽  
Tong Hu ◽  
...  

In this study, the RegCM4 regional climate model was employed to investigate the impacts of water consumption in the Haihe Plain on the local climate in the nearby Taihang Mountains. Four simulation tests of twelve years’ duration were conducted with various schemes of water consumption by residents, industries, and agriculture. The results indicate that water exploitation and consumption in the Haihe Plain causes wetting and cooling of the local land surface and rapid increases in the depth of the groundwater table. These wetting and cooling effects increase atmospheric moisture, which is transported to surrounding areas, including the Taihang Mountains to the west. In a simulation where water consumption in the Haihe Plain was doubled, the wetting and cooling effects in the Taihang Mountains were enhanced but at less than double the amount, because a cooler land surface does not enhance atmospheric convective activities. The impacts of water consumption activities in the Haihe Plain were more obvious during the irrigation seasons (primarily spring and summer). In addition, the land surface variables in the Taihang Mountains, e.g., sensible and latent heat fluxes, were less sensitive to the climatic impacts due to the water consumption activities in the Haihe Plain because they were strongly affected by local surface energy balance.


2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (21) ◽  
pp. 5264-5284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samson M. Hagos ◽  
Kerry H. Cook

Abstract The observed abrupt latitudinal shift of maximum precipitation from the Guinean coast into the Sahel region in June, known as the West African monsoon jump, is studied using a regional climate model. Moisture, momentum, and energy budget analyses are used to better understand the physical processes that lead to the jump. Because of the distribution of albedo and surface moisture, a sensible heating maximum is in place over the Sahel region throughout the spring. In early May, this sensible heating drives a shallow meridional circulation and moisture convergence at the latitude of the sensible heating maximum, and this moisture is transported upward into the lower free troposphere where it diverges. During the second half of May, the supply of moisture from the boundary layer exceeds the divergence, resulting in a net supply of moisture and condensational heating into the lower troposphere. The resulting pressure gradient introduces an inertial instability, which abruptly shifts the midtropospheric meridional wind convergence maximum from the coast into the continental interior at the end of May. This in turn introduces a net total moisture convergence, net upward moisture flux and condensation in the upper troposphere, and an enhancement of precipitation in the continental interior through June. Because of the shift of the meridional convergence into the continent, condensation and precipitation along the coast gradually decline. The West African monsoon jump is an example of multiscale interaction in the climate system, in which an intraseasonal-scale event is triggered by the smooth seasonal evolution of SSTs and the solar forcing in the presence of land–sea contrast.


2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 3193-3212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joey H. Y. Kwok ◽  
Johnny C. L. Chan

Abstract The influence of a uniform flow on the structural changes of a tropical cyclone (TC) is investigated using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model (MM5). Idealized experiments are performed on either an f plane or a β plane. A strong uniform flow on an f plane results in a weaker vortex due to the development of a vertical wind shear induced by the asymmetric vertical motion and a rotation of upper-level anticyclone. The asymmetric vertical motion also reduces the secondary circulation of the vortex. On a β plane with no flow, a broad anticyclonic flow is found to the southeast of the vortex, which expands with time. Similar to the f-plane case, asymmetric vertical motion and vertical wind shear are also found. This beta-induced shear weakens the no-flow case significantly relative to that on an f plane. When a uniform flow is imposed on a β plane, an easterly flow produces a stronger asymmetry whereas a westerly flow reduces it. In addition, an easterly uniform flow tends to strengthen the beta-induced shear whereas a westerly flow appears to reduce it by altering the magnitude and direction of the shear vector. As a result, a westerly flow enhances TC development while an easterly flow reduces it. The vortex tilt and midlevel warming found in this study agree with the previous investigations of vertical wind shear. A strong uniform flow with a constant f results in a tilted and deformed potential vorticity at the upper levels. For a variable f, such tilting is more pronounced for a vortex in an easterly flow, while a westerly flow reduces the tilt. In addition, the vortex tilt appears to be related to the midlevel warming such that the warm core in the lower troposphere cannot extent upward, which leads to the subsequent weakening of the TC.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (17) ◽  
pp. 6799-6818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Kerkhoff ◽  
Hans R. Künsch ◽  
Christoph Schär

Abstract Climate scenarios make implicit or explicit assumptions about the extrapolation of climate model biases from current to future time periods. Such assumptions are inevitable because of the lack of future observations. This manuscript reviews different bias assumptions found in the literature and provides measures to assess their validity. The authors explicitly separate climate change from multidecadal variability to systematically analyze climate model biases in seasonal and regional surface temperature averages, using global and regional climate models (GCMs and RCMs) from the Ensemble-Based Predictions of Climate Changes and Their Impacts (ENSEMBLES) project over Europe. For centennial time scales, it is found that a linear bias extrapolation for GCMs is best supported by the analysis: that is, it is generally not correct to assume that model biases are independent of the climate state. Results also show that RCMs behave markedly differently when forced with different drivers. RCM and GCM biases are not additive, and there is a significant interaction component in the bias of the RCM–GCM model chain that depends on both the RCM and GCM considered. This result questions previous studies that deduce biases (and ultimately projections) in RCM–GCM combinations from reanalysis-driven simulations. The authors suggest that the aforementioned interaction component derives from the refined RCM representation of dynamical and physical processes in the lower troposphere, which may nonlinearly depend upon the larger-scale circulation stemming from the driving GCM. The authors’ analyses also show that RCMs provide added value and that the combined RCM–GCM approach yields, in general, smaller biases in seasonal surface temperature and interannual variability, particularly in summer and even for spatial scales that are, in principle, well resolved by the GCMs.


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 57-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. F. Leon ◽  
D. Lam ◽  
W. Schertzer ◽  
D. Swayne

Abstract. Under a Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS) project, targeted to study the feasibility to link regional climate models with lake models, one of the tasks was to consider such a coupling in large lakes. The objective is to provide detailed information on temperature and circulation distributions of the lake to take into account the spatial variability for temperature and the heat exchange through the water's surface. The major contribution of this work is focused on realistic representation of the heat fluxes and temperature distributions to and from lakes especially during the thermally stratified ice-free periods. This paper presents the detailed 3-D ELCOM model applied in Lake Erie in order to produce, at the surface layer of the lake, the spatial distribution of temperature and heat exchanges that eventually can be coupled with a regional climate model (CRCM). Preliminary results will be presented on how this lake model may improve the regional climate models, which currently do not consider such large lake circulation effects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 147 (10) ◽  
pp. 3519-3534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leon T. Nguyen ◽  
Robert Rogers ◽  
Jonathan Zawislak ◽  
Jun A. Zhang

Abstract The thermodynamic impacts of downdraft-induced cooling/drying and downstream recovery via surface enthalpy fluxes within tropical cyclones (TCs) were investigated using dropsonde observations collected from 1996 to 2017. This study focused on relatively weak TCs (tropical depression, tropical storm, category 1 hurricane) that were subjected to moderate (4.5–11.0 m s−1) levels of environmental vertical wind shear. The dropsonde data were analyzed in a shear-relative framework and binned according to TC intensity change in the 24 h following the dropsonde observation time, allowing for comparison between storms that underwent different intensity changes. Moisture and temperature asymmetries in the lower troposphere yielded a relative maximum in lower-tropospheric conditional instability in the downshear quadrants and a relative minimum in instability in the upshear quadrants, regardless of intensity change. However, the instability increased as the intensification rate increased, particularly in the downshear quadrants. This was due to increased boundary layer moist entropy relative to the temperature profile above the boundary layer. Additionally, significantly larger surface enthalpy fluxes were observed as the intensification rate increased, particularly in the upshear quadrants. These results suggest that in intensifying storms, enhanced surface enthalpy fluxes in the upshear quadrants allow downdraft-modified boundary layer air to recover moisture and heat more effectively as it is advected cyclonically around the storm. By the time the air reaches the downshear quadrants, the lower-tropospheric conditional instability is enhanced, which is speculated to be more favorable for updraft growth and deep convection.


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