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

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.

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (22) ◽  
pp. 13857-13876
Author(s):  
Arata Amemiya ◽  
Kaoru Sato

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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (18) ◽  
pp. 25981-26023 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Garny ◽  
W. J. Randel

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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (13) ◽  
pp. 4723-4740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Li ◽  
David W. J. Thompson

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.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry Mukhin ◽  
Abdel Hannachi

<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>


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 2703-2718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hella Garny ◽  
William J. Randel

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 transport. When considering vertical transport we find that 31 %  or 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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1010
Author(s):  
Lehui Wei ◽  
Chunhua Jiang ◽  
Yaogai Hu ◽  
Ercha Aa ◽  
Wengeng Huang ◽  
...  

This study presents observations of nighttime spread F/ionospheric irregularities and spread Es at low and middle latitudes in the South East Asia longitude of China sectors during the recovery phase of the 7–9 September 2017 geomagnetic storm. In this study, multiple observations, including a chain of three ionosondes located about the longitude of 100°E, Swarm satellites, and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ROTI maps, were used to study the development process and evolution characteristics of the nighttime spread F/ionospheric irregularities at low and middle latitudes. Interestingly, spread F and intense spread Es were simultaneously observed by three ionosondes during the recovery phase. Moreover, associated ionospheric irregularities could be observed by Swarm satellites and ground-based GNSS ionospheric TEC. Nighttime spread F and spread Es at low and middle latitudes might be due to multiple off-vertical reflection echoes from the large-scale tilts in the bottom ionosphere. In addition, we found that the periods of the disturbance ionosphere are ~1 h at ZHY station, ~1.5 h at LSH station and ~1 h at PUR station, respectively. It suggested that the large-scale tilts in the bottom ionosphere might be produced by LSTIDs (Large scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances), which might be induced by the high-latitude energy inputs during the recovery phase of this storm. Furthermore, the associated ionospheric irregularities observed by satellites and ground-based GNSS receivers might be caused by the local electric field induced by LSTIDs.


2021 ◽  
pp. 17-28
Author(s):  
A. V. Gochakov ◽  
◽  
O. Yu. Antokhina ◽  
V. N. Krupchatnikov ◽  
Yu. V. Martynova ◽  
...  

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.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (10) ◽  
pp. 3597-3612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arata Amemiya ◽  
Kaoru Sato

The Asian monsoon anticyclone, which develops in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere during boreal summer, exhibits significant subseasonal variability with a characteristic spatial structure. The dynamics of this variability is investigated using a nonlinear β-plane shallow-water model. The equivalent depth is estimated using reanalysis data to relate the three-dimensional dynamics in isentropic coordinates to the shallow-water model. Composite analysis reveals the resemblance of the horizontal structures between the Montgomery streamfunction and thickness on the 360-K level. However, the coefficients of the linear regressions between those two variables are strongly dependent on latitude. The estimated equivalent depths of the northern region are more than 2 times greater than those of the southern region. This is attributable to the background thermal structure around the tropopause. Based on this, a latitude-dependent mean depth is incorporated into the shallow-water model to numerically investigate responses to a steady localized forcing in the subtropics. With the inclusion of the latitudinal dependence of the mean depth, the vortex shedding state is able to have a longitudinally confined structure, which differs from the conventional case of constant mean depth. The spatial structure of this numerical solution corresponds to the observed structure, in which low-PV air is largely confined to finite longitudes within the Asian monsoon anticyclone. This suggests the possible role of dynamical instability and the interaction with the subtropical jet in determining the characteristic structure of the Asian monsoon anticyclone.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Christine Stephan ◽  
Nicholas P. Klingaman ◽  
Pier Luigi Vidale ◽  
Andrew G. Turner ◽  
Marie-Estelle Demory ◽  
...  

Abstract. Six climate simulations of the Met Office Unified Model Global Atmosphere 6.0 and Global Coupled 2.0 configurations are evaluated against observations and reanalysis data for their ability to simulate the mean state and year-to-year variability of precipitation over China. To analyze the sensitivity to air-sea coupling and horizontal resolution, atmosphere-only and coupled integrations at atmospheric horizontal resolutions of N96, N216 and N512 (corresponding to ~ 200, 90, and 40 km in the zonal direction at the equator, respectively) are analyzed. The mean and interannual variance of seasonal precipitation are too high in all simulations over China, but improve with finer resolution and coupling. Empirical Orthogonal Teleconnection (EOT) analysis is applied to simulated and observed precipitation to identify spatial patterns of temporally coherent interannual variability in seasonal precipitation. To connect these patterns to large-scale atmospheric and coupled air-sea processes, atmospheric and oceanic fields are regressed onto the corresponding seasonal-mean timeseries. All simulations reproduce the observed leading pattern of interannual rainfall variability in winter, spring and autumn; the leading pattern in summer is present in all but one simulation. However, only in two simulations are the four leading patterns associated with the observed physical mechanisms. Coupled simulations capture more observed patterns of variability and associate more of them with the correct physical mechanism, compared to atmosphere-only simulations at the same resolution. However, finer resolution does not improve the fidelity of these patterns or their associated mechanisms. This shows that evaluating climate models by only geographical distribution of mean precipitation and its interannual variance is insufficient. The EOT analysis adds knowledge about coherent variability and associated mechanisms.


2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 3413-3440 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. P. Maurer ◽  
H. G. Hidalgo

Abstract. Downscaling of climate model data is essential to most impact analysis. We compare two methods of statistical downscaling to produce continuous, gridded time series of precipitation and surface air temperature at a 1/8-degree (approximately 140 km² per grid cell) resolution over the western U.S. We use NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data from 1950–1999 as a surrogate General Circulation Model (GCM). The two methods included are constructed analogues (CA) and a bias correction and spatial downscaling (BCSD), both of which have been shown to be skillful in different settings, and BCSD has been used extensively in hydrologic impact analysis. Both methods use the coarse scale Reanalysis fields of precipitation and temperature as predictors of the corresponding fine scale fields. CA downscales daily large-scale data directly and BCSD downscales monthly data, with a random resampling technique to generate daily values. The methods produce comparable skill in producing downscaled, gridded fields of precipitation and temperatures at a monthly and seasonal level. For daily precipitation, both methods exhibit some skill in reproducing both observed wet and dry extremes and the difference between the methods is not significant, reflecting the general low skill in daily precipitation variability in the reanalysis data. For low temperature extremes, the CA method produces greater downscaling skill than BCSD for fall and winter seasons. For high temperature extremes, CA demonstrates higher skill than BCSD in summer. We find that the choice of most appropriate downscaling technique depends on the variables, seasons, and regions of interest, on the availability of daily data, and whether the day to day correspondence of weather from the GCM needs to be reproduced for some applications. The ability to produce skillful downscaled daily data depends primarily on the ability of the climate model to show daily skill.


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