scholarly journals Characterizing quasi-biweekly variability of the Asian monsoon anticyclone using potential vorticity and large-scale geopotential height field

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (22) ◽  
pp. 13857-13876
Author(s):  
Arata Amemiya ◽  
Kaoru Sato
Keyword(s):  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Geopotential Height ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Asian Monsoon ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Longitudinal Distribution ◽  
Middle Latitudes ◽  
Subseasonal Variability ◽  
Westward Movement ◽  
Isentropic Surface

Abstract. The spatial pattern of subseasonal variability of the Asian monsoon anticyclone is analyzed using long-term reanalysis data, focusing on the large-scale longitudinal movement. The air inside the anticyclone is quantified by a thickness-weighted low-PV (potential vorticity) area on an isentropic surface. It is shown that the longitudinal movement of the air inside the Asian monsoon anticyclone has a timescale of 1 to 2 weeks, which is shorter than the monthly dominant timescale of the variability in the anticyclone intensity. The movement of the anticyclonic air is suggested to be largely controlled by passive advection. The typical time evolution of the variability pattern, explained by two leading empirical orthogonal function (EOF) components of 100 hPa geopotential height, shows large-scale geopotential anomalies moving westward spanning from low to middle latitudes. This corresponds well with the rapid westward movement of low-PV air known as “eddy shedding” and following the eastward retreat of the anticyclonic air. The two EOF components can also explain the bimodal longitudinal distribution of geopotential maximum location.

scholarly journals Characterizing quasi-biweekly variability of the Asian monsoon anticyclone using potential vorticity and large-scale geopotential field

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arata Amemiya ◽  
Kaoru Sato
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Asian Monsoon ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Longitudinal Distribution ◽  
Passive Advection ◽  
Middle Latitudes ◽  
Subseasonal Variability ◽  
Variability Pattern ◽  
Westward Movement ◽  
Isentropic Surface

Abstract. The spatial pattern of subseasonal variability of the Asian monsoon anticyclone is analyzed using long-term reanalysis data, focusing on the large-scale longitudinal movement. The air inside the anticyclone is quantified by a thickness-weighted low PV area on an isentropic surface. It is shown that the longitudinal movement of the air inside the Asian monsoon anticyclone has a timescale of one to two weeks, which is shorter than the monthly dominant timescale of the variability in the anticyclone intensity. The movement of the anticyclonic air is suggested to be largely controlled by passive advection. The typical time evolution of the variability pattern, explained by two leading EOF components of 100 hPa geopotential height, shows large-scale geopotential anomalies moving westward spanning from low to middle latitudes. This corresponds well with the rapid westward movement of low-PV air known as eddy shedding and following eastward retreat of the anticyclonic air. The two EOF components can also explain the bimodal longitudinal distribution of geopotential maximum location.

Method for Identifying and Clustering Rossby Wave Breaking Events in the Northern Hemisphere

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
A. V. Gochakov ◽  
◽  
O. Yu. Antokhina ◽  
V. N. Krupchatnikov ◽  
Yu. V. Martynova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rossby Wave ◽  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Wave Breaking ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Method Development ◽  
Spatial Clustering ◽  
Potential Temperature ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Rossby Wave Breaking ◽  
Dynamic Phenomena

Many large-scale dynamic phenomena in the Earth’s atmosphere are associated with the processes of propagation and breaking of Rossby waves. A new method for identifying the Rossby wave breaking (RWB) is proposed. It is based on the detection of breakings centers by analyzing the shape of the contours of potential vorticity or temperature on quasimaterial surfaces: isentropic and iserthelic (surfaces of constant Ertel potential vorticity (PV)), with further RWB center clustering to larger regions. The method is applied to the set of constant PV levels (0.3 to 9.8 PVU with a step of 0.5 PVU) at the level of potential temperature of 350 K for 12:00 UTC. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data from 1979 to 2019 are used for the method development. The type of RWB (cyclonic/anticyclonic), its area and center are determined by analyzing the vortex geometry at each PV level for every day. The RWBs obtained at this stage are designated as elementary breakings. Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise algorithm (DBSCAN) was applied to all elementary breakings for each month. As a result, a graphic dataset describing locations and dynamics of RWBs for every month from 1979 to 2019 is formed. The RWB frequency is also evaluated for each longitude, taking into account the duration of each RWB and the number of levels involved, as well as the anomalies of these parameters.

scholarly journals Aspects of Potential Vorticity Fluxes: Climatology and Impermeability

2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (8) ◽  
pp. 3257-3267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Egger ◽  
Klaus-Peter Hoinka ◽  
Thomas Spengler
Keyword(s):  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Surface Element ◽  
Closed Surfaces ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
Isentropic Surface ◽  
P Flux ◽  
Extratropical Tropopause ◽  
The One ◽  
P Fluxes

Abstract Some aspects of the dynamics of generalized potential vorticity (PV) density P = ω ⋅ ∇χ are discussed with the main emphasis on P fluxes, where ωa is absolute vorticity and χ is a scalar. The impermeability theorem claims that there is no net P flux across a χ surface. Various forms of the flux are presented that mostly cross χ surfaces. As these fluxes are as dynamically relevant as the one chosen for the theorem, P fluxes through a surface element are inherently multivalued and there is no best choice on physical grounds. Nevertheless, the net P flux is unique for closed surfaces. This point is illustrated by P integrals over the volume between the earth’s surface and an isentropic surface. Reanalysis data are used to present mean advective and some nonadvective P fluxes for χ = θ in height coordinates. The extratropical tropopause appears to be supported by advective P fluxes. A satisfactorily closed P budget cannot, however, be presented.

scholarly journals An Objective Identification and Climatology of Upper-Tropospheric Jets near Atlantic Tropical Cyclones

2020 ◽  
Vol 148 (7) ◽  
pp. 3015-3036
Author(s):  
Levi P. Cowan ◽  
Robert E. Hart
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Clustering Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Atlantic Basin ◽  
Jet Behavior ◽  
Consistent Feature ◽  
Large Scale Flow ◽  
Westerly Jets

Abstract An objective algorithm is developed for identifying jets in 200-hPa flow and applied to reanalysis data within 2000 km of Atlantic tropical cyclones (TCs) during 1979–2015. The resulting set of 16 512 jets is analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to describe the climatology of TC–jet configurations and jet behavior near TCs. Jets occur most commonly poleward of TCs within the 500–1000-km annulus, where TC outflow amplifies the background potential vorticity gradient. A rigorous clustering analysis is performed, resulting in statistically distinct clusters of jet traces that correspond to common configurations of large-scale flow near Atlantic TCs. The speed structure of westerly jets poleward of TCs is found to vary with location in the Atlantic basin, but acceleration of jets downstream of their closest approach to the TC due to interaction with the TC’s diabatic outflow is a consistent feature of these structures. In addition to the climatology developed here, this objectively constructed dataset of upper-tropospheric jets opens unique avenues for exploring TC–environment interactions and utilizing jets to quantitatively describe large-scale flow.

scholarly journals Annular versus Nonannular Variability of the Northern Hemisphere Atmospheric Circulation

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 3180-3190 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Castanheira ◽  
M. L. R. Liberato ◽  
L. de la Torre ◽  
H-F. Graf ◽  
A. Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Geopotential Height ◽  
Normal Modes ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Residual Variability ◽  
Middle Latitudes ◽  
Symmetric Component ◽  
Tropospheric Circulation ◽  
Highly Correlated

Abstract The annular variability of the northern winter extratropical circulation is reassessed based on reanalysis data that are dynamically filtered by normal modes. One-half of the variability of the monthly averaged barotropic zonally symmetric circulation of the Northern Hemisphere is statistically distinct from the remaining variability and is represented by its leading empirical orthogonal function (EOF) alone. The daily time series of the circulation anomalies projected onto the leading EOF is highly correlated (r ≥ 0.7) with the lower-stratospheric northern annular mode (NAM) indices showing that annular variability extends from the stratosphere deep into the troposphere. However, the geopotential and wind anomalies associated with the leading principal component (PC1) of the barotropic zonally symmetric circulation are displaced northward relative to the zonal mean anomalies associated with the PC1 of the geopotential height variability at single-isobaric tropospheric levels. The regression pattern of the 500-hPa geopotential height (Z500) onto the lower-stratospheric NAM also shows zonally symmetric components displaced northward with respect to those of the leading EOF of the Z500 field. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the residual variability of the Z500 field remaining after the substraction of the Z500 regressed onto the lower-stratospheric NAM index also reveals a pattern with a zonally symmetric component at midlatitudes. However, this zonally symmetric component appears as the second EOF of the residual variability and is the imprint of two independent dipoles over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Results show that a zonally symmetric component of the middle- and lower-tropospheric circulation variability exists at high latitudes. At the middle latitudes, the zonally symmetric component, if any exists, is artificially overemphasized by the PCA on single-isobaric tropospheric levels.

The quantification of development processes of explosive cyclones over Northwestern Pacific and Atlantic in boreal winter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joonsuk Kang ◽  
Seok-Woo Son
Keyword(s):  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Geopotential Height ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Northwestern Pacific ◽  
Boreal Winter ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Explosive Cyclones ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Zonal Advection ◽  
Negative Factors

<p>A method utilizing a prognostic potential vorticity (PV) inversion is designed and applied to quantify the processes that contribute to the explosive cyclone (EC) development over Northwestern Pacific and Atlantic in boreal winter. The ECs deepening in the two remarked regions are identified and tracked, by using the automated tracking method on ERA-Interim reanalysis data over the period of 1979–2017. The quantification process first involves time differentiation of linearized potential vorticity (PV), which results in a linear function of geopotential height tendency. It is then equated with the PV tendency equation that consists of mean and transient advection terms to represent dynamical processes that contribute to EC development. The quantification, finally, is performed through the inversion of PV tendency budgets, which yields corresponding geopotential height tendency. The results indicate that EC development is primarily caused by zonal advection of PV anomalies by mean flow (~65%) and diabatic production of PV (~40%), with some negative factors in both regions. The former contributes more for ECs deepening over Northwestern Atlantic (~71%) than Northwestern Pacific (~60%), whereas the latter contributes to a similar extent.</p>

scholarly journals A Climatology of the Tropospheric Thermal Stratification Using Saturation Potential Vorticity

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 5977-5991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Korty ◽  
Tapio Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Potential Vorticity ◽  
Thermal Stratification ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Lower Troposphere ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Reanalysis Dataset ◽  
Air Masses ◽  
Slantwise Convection ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Global Reanalysis

Abstract The condition of convective neutrality is assessed in the troposphere by calculating the saturation potential vorticity P* from reanalysis data. Regions of the atmosphere in which saturation entropy is constant along isosurfaces of absolute angular momentum, a state indicative of slantwise-convective neutrality, have values of P* equal to zero. In a global reanalysis dataset spanning the years 1970–2004, tropospheric regions are identified in which P* is near zero, implying that vertical convection or slantwise convection may be important in determining the local thermal stratification. Convectively neutral air masses are common not only in the Tropics but also in higher latitudes, for example, over midlatitude continents in summer and in storm tracks over oceans in winter. Large-scale eddies appear to stabilize parts of the lower troposphere, particularly in winter.

scholarly journals Transport pathways from the Asian monsoon anticyclone to the stratosphere

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (18) ◽  
pp. 25981-26023 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Garny ◽  
W. J. Randel
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Asian Monsoon ◽  
Deep Convection ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Vertical Transport ◽  
Heating Rates ◽  
Transport Pathways ◽  
Northern Summer ◽  
The Tropics

Abstract. Transport pathways of air originating in the upper tropospheric Asian monsoon anticyclone are investigated based on three-dimensional trajectories. The Asian monsoon anticyclone emerges in response to persistent deep convection over India and southeast Asia in northern summer, and this convection is associated with rapid transport from the surface to the upper troposphere, and possibly into the stratosphere. Here, we investigate the fate of air that originates within the upper tropospheric anticyclone from the outflow of deep convection, using trajectories driven by ERA-interim reanalysis data. Calculations include isentropic estimates, plus fully three-dimensional results based on kinematic and diabatic transport calculations. Isentropic calculations show that air parcels are typically confined within the anticyclone for 10–20 days, and spread over the tropical belt within a month of their initialization. However, only few parcels (3 % at 360 K, 8 % at 380 K) reach the extratropical stratosphere by isentropic mixing. When considering vertical transport we find that 31 % (48%) of the trajectories reach the stratosphere within 60 days when using vertical velocities or diabatic heating rates to calculate vertical transport, respectively. In both cases, most parcels that reach the stratosphere are transported upward within the anticyclone and enter the stratosphere in the tropics, typically 10–20 days after their initialization at 360 K. This suggests that trace gases, including pollutants, that are transported into the stratosphere via the Asian monsoon system are in a position to enter the tropical pipe and thus be transported into the deep stratosphere. Sensitivity calculations with respect to the initial altitude of the trajectories showed that air needs to be transported to levels of 360 K or above by deep convection to likely (≧50 %) reach the stratosphere through transport by the large-scale circulation.

scholarly journals Observed Signatures of the Barotropic and Baroclinic Annular Modes in Cloud Vertical Structure and Cloud Radiative Effects

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (13) ◽  
pp. 4723-4740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Li ◽  
David W. J. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Vertical Structure ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
Static Stability ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Radiative Effects ◽  
Annular Modes ◽  
Middle Latitudes ◽  
Cloud Radiative Effects

Abstract The signatures of large-scale annular variability on the vertical structure of clouds and cloud radiative effects are examined in vertically resolved CloudSat and other satellite and reanalysis data products. The northern and southern “barotropic” annular modes (the NAM and SAM) have a complex vertical structure. Both are associated with a meridional dipole in clouds between subpolar and middle latitudes, but the sign of the anomalies changes between upper, middle, and lower tropospheric levels. In contrast, the northern and southern baroclinic annular modes have a much simpler vertical structure. Both are linked to same-signed anomalies in clouds extending throughout the troposphere at middle to high latitudes. The changes in cloud incidence associated with both the barotropic and baroclinic annular modes are consistent with dynamical forcing by the attendant changes in static stability and/or vertical motion. The results also provide the first observational estimates of the vertically resolved atmospheric cloud radiative effects associated with hemispheric-scale extratropical variability. In general, the anomalies in atmospheric cloud radiative effects associated with the annular modes peak in the middle to upper troposphere, and are consistent with the anomalous trapping of longwave radiation by variations in upper tropospheric clouds. The southern baroclinic annular mode gives rise to periodic behavior in longwave cloud radiative effects at the top of the atmosphere averaged over Southern Hemisphere midlatitudes.

Detecting regimes of the mid-latitude atmospheric circulation by nonlinear data decomposition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Mukhin ◽  
Abdel Hannachi
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Decadal Variability ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Kernel Principal Component Analysis ◽  
Middle Latitudes ◽  
External Forcings

<p>We suggest a method for nonlinear analysis of atmospheric circulation regimes in the middle latitudes. The method is based on the kernel principal component analysis allowing to separate principal modes of dynamics entangled in data. We propose a new kernel function accounting specifics of large-scale wave patterns in the mid-latitude atmosphere. First, capabilities of the method are shown by the analysis of the 3-layer quasi-geostrophic model of the Northern hemisphere atmosphere: a statistically significant set of modes can be detected by the method from relatively short (several thousand days) time series. Next, we consider reanalysis data of wintertime geopotential height anomalies over the Northern hemisphere from 1950 to the present. The principal components obtained uncover several recurrent and persistent wave structures which are associated with different weather regimes. We find that there is a pronounced inter-annual and decadal variability in the dominance of different modes in different years. Possible climatic and external forcings which impact such variability as well as long-term predictability of anomalous weather seasons based on the obtained components are discussed.</p>

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