SST fronts along the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio affect the atmospheric winter climatology primarily in the absence of storms

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Spengler ◽  
Leonidas Tsopouridis ◽  
Clemens Spensberger
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Cyclone Activity ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
The North ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Upper Level Jet ◽  
Kuroshio Region

<p>The Gulf Stream and Kuroshio regions feature strong sea surface temperature (SST) gradients that influence cyclone development and the storm track. Smoothing the SSTs in either the North Atlantic or North Pacific has been shown to yield a reduction in cyclone activity, surface heat fluxes, and precipitation, as well as a southward shift of the storm track and the upper-level jet. To what extent these changes are attributable to changes in individual cyclone behaviour, however, remains unclear. Comparing simulations with realistic and smoothed SSTs in the atmospheric general circulation model AFES, we find that the intensification of individual cyclones in the Gulf Stream or Kuroshio region is only marginally affected by reducing the SST gradient. In contrast, we observe considerable changes in the climatological mean state, with a reduced cyclone activity in the North Atlantic and North Pacific storm tracks that are also shifted equator-ward in both basins. The upper-level jet in the Atlantic also shifts equator-ward, while the jet in the Pacific strengthens in its climatological position and extends further east. Surface heat fluxes, specific humidity, and precipitation also respond strongly to the smoothing of the SST, with a considerable decrease of their mean values on the warm side of the SST front. This decrease is more pronounced in the Gulf Stream than in the Kuroshio region, due to the amplified decrease in SST along the Gulf Stream SST front.  Considering the pertinent variables occurring within different radii of cyclones in each basin over their entire lifetime, we find cyclones to play only a secondary role in explaining the mean states differences between smoothed and realistic SST experiments.</p>

scholarly journals SST fronts along the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio affect the winter climatology primarily in the absence of cyclones

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonidas Tsopouridis ◽  
Thomas Spengler ◽  
Clemens Spensberger
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Cyclone Activity ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
The North ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Upper Level Jet ◽  
Kuroshio Region

Abstract. The Gulf Stream and Kuroshio regions feature strong sea surface temperature (SST) gradients that influence cyclone development and the storm track. Smoothing the SSTs in either the North Atlantic or North Pacific has been shown to yield a reduction in cyclone activity, surface heat fluxes, and precipitation, as well as a southward shift of the storm track and the upper-level jet. To what extent these changes are attributable to changes in individual cyclone behaviour, however, remains unclear. Comparing simulations with realistic and smoothed SSTs in the atmospheric general circulation model AFES, we find that the intensification of individual cyclones in the Gulf Stream or Kuroshio region is only marginally affected by reducing the SST gradient. In contrast, we observe considerable changes in the climatological mean state, with a reduced cyclone activity in the North Atlantic and North Pacific storm tracks that are also shifted equator-ward in both basins. The upper-level jet in the Atlantic also shifts equator-ward, while the jet in the Pacific strengthens in its climatological position and extends further east. Surface heat fluxes, specific humidity, and precipitation also respond strongly to the smoothing of the SST, with a considerable decrease of their mean values on the warm side of the SST front. This decrease is more pronounced in the Gulf Stream than in the Kuroshio region, due to the amplified decrease in SST along the Gulf Stream SST front. Subdividing the winter climatology into dates with/without cyclones present in the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio regions, we find that cyclones play only a secondary role in explaining the mean states differences between the smoothed and realistic SST experiments.

scholarly journals On the Relationship between Synoptic Wintertime Atmospheric Variability and Path Shifts in the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio Extension

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 3177-3192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrence M. Joyce ◽  
Young-Oh Kwon ◽  
Lisan Yu
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Kuroshio Extension ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
Atmospheric Variability ◽  
The North ◽  
The Kuroshio ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract Coherent, large-scale shifts in the paths of the Gulf Stream (GS) and the Kuroshio Extension (KE) occur on interannual to decadal time scales. Attention has usually been drawn to causes for these shifts in the overlying atmosphere, with some built-in delay of up to a few years resulting from propagation of wind-forced variability within the ocean. However, these shifts in the latitudes of separated western boundary currents can cause substantial changes in SST, which may influence the synoptic atmospheric variability with little or no time delay. Various measures of wintertime atmospheric variability in the synoptic band (2–8 days) are examined using a relatively new dataset for air–sea exchange [Objectively Analyzed Air–Sea Fluxes (OAFlux)] and subsurface temperature indices of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio path that are insulated from direct air–sea exchange, and therefore are preferable to SST. Significant changes are found in the atmospheric variability following changes in the paths of these currents, sometimes in a local fashion such as meridional shifts in measures of local storm tracks, and sometimes in nonlocal, broad regions coincident with and downstream of the oceanic forcing. Differences between the North Pacific (KE) and North Atlantic (GS) may be partly related to the more zonal orientation of the KE and the stronger SST signals of the GS, but could also be due to differences in mean storm-track characteristics over the North Pacific and North Atlantic.

Sources and transport pathways of precipitating waters in cold-season deep North Atlantic cyclones

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Papritz ◽  
Franziska Aemisegger ◽  
Heini Wernli
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
Surface Fluxes ◽  
Extratropical Cyclones ◽  
Transport Pathways ◽  
The North ◽  
Cyclone Tracking

AbstractExtratropical cyclones are responsible for a large share of precipitation at mid-latitudes and they profoundly impact the characteristics of the water cycle. In this study, we use the ERA5 reanalysis and a cyclone tracking scheme combined with a Lagrangian diagnostic to identify the sources of moisture precipitating close to the center of 676 deep North Atlantic cyclones in winters 1979 to 2018. Moisture uptakes occur pre-dominantly in originally cold and dry air heated over the North Atlantic, in particular, over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, whereas more remote sources from land or the subtropics are less important. Analysing the dynamical environment of moisture uptakes, we find that moisture precipitating during the cyclone intensification phase originates in the pre-cyclone environment in the cold sectors of preceding cyclones and the cyclone-anticyclone interaction zone. These moisture sources are linked to the cyclone’s ascent regions via the so-called feeder airstream, a north-easterly cyclone-relative flow that arises due to the cyclone propagation exceeding the advection by the low-level background flow. During the decay phase more and more of the moisture originates in the cyclone’s own cold sector. Consequently, the residence time of precipitating waters in cyclones is short (median of ≈ 2 days) and transport distances are typically less than the distance travelled by the cyclone itself. These findings emphasize the importance of pre-conditioning by surface fluxes in the pre-cyclone environment for the formation of precipitation in cyclones, and suggest an important role for the hand-over of moisture from one cyclone to the next within a storm track.

scholarly journals Interannual Variability of High-Wind Occurrence over the North Atlantic*

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (24) ◽  
pp. 6515-6527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuhua Cheng ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie ◽  
Hiroki Tokinaga ◽  
Yan Du
Keyword(s):  
Interannual Variability ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Surface Air Temperature ◽  
High Wind ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation

Abstract Interannual variability of high-wind occurrence over the North Atlantic is investigated based on observations from the satellite-borne Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). Despite no wind direction being included, SSM/I data capture major features of high-wind frequency (HWF) quite well. Climatology maps show that HWF is highest in winter and is close to zero in summer. Remarkable interannual variability of HWF is found in the vicinity of the Gulf Stream, over open sea south of Iceland, and off Cape Farewell, Greenland. On interannual scales, HWF south of Iceland has a significant positive correlation with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). An increase in the mean westerlies and storm-track intensity during a positive NAO event cause HWF to increase in this region. In the vicinity of the Gulf Stream, HWF is significantly correlated with the difference between sea surface temperature and surface air temperature (SST − SAT), indicative of the importance of atmospheric instability. Cross-frontal wind and an SST gradient are important for the instability of the marine atmospheric boundary layer on the warm flank of the SST front. Off Cape Farewell, high wind occurs in both westerly and easterly tip jets. Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) data show that variability in westerly (easterly) HWF off Cape Farewell is positively (negatively) correlated with the NAO.

Absorption of Ocean Heat Along and Across Isopycnals in HadCM3

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Clement ◽  
Elaine McDonagh ◽  
Jonathan Gregory ◽  
Quran Wu ◽  
Alice Marzocchi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Ekman Pumping ◽  
Temperature Changes ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
The North ◽  
Winter Mixed Layer ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
Heat Budgets

<p><span>Anthropogenic warming added to the climate system accumulates mostly in the ocean interior and discrepancies in how this is modelled contribute to uncertainties in predicting sea level rise. Temperature changes are partitioned between excess, due to perturbed surface heat fluxes, and redistribution, that arises from the changing circulation and perturbations to mixing. In a model (HadCM3) with realistic historical forcing (anthropogenic and natural) from 1960 to 2011, we firstly compare this excess-redistribution partitioning with the spice and heave decomposition, in which ocean interior temperature anomalies occur along or across isopycnals, respectively. This comparison reveals that in subtropical gyres (except in the North Atlantic) heave mostly captures excess warming in the top 2000 m, as expected from Ekman pumping, whereas spice captures redistributive cooling. At high-latitudes and in the subtropical Atlantic, however, spice predicts excess warming at the winter mixed layer whereas below this layer, spice represents redistributive warming in southern high latitudes.</span></p><p><span> </span></p><p><span>Secondly, we use Eulerian heat budgets of the ocean interior to identify the process responsible for excess and redistributive warming. In southern high latitudes, spice warming results from reduced convective cooling and increased warming by isopycnal diffusion, which account for the deep redistributive and shallow excess warming, respectively. In the North Atlantic, excess warming due to advection contains both cross-isopycnal warming (heave found in subtropical gyres) and along-isopycnal warming (spice). Finally, projections of heat budgets —coupled with salinity budgets— into thermohaline and spiciness-density coordinates inform us about how water mass formation occurs with varying T-S slopes. Such formation happens preferentially along isopycnal surfaces at high-latitudes and along isospiciness surfaces at mid-latitudes, and along both coordinates in the subtropical Atlantic. Because spice and heave depend only on temperature and salinity, our study suggests a method to detect excess warming in observations.</span></p>

scholarly journals Climatology and Changes of Extratropical Cyclone Activity: Comparison of ERA-40 with NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis for 1958–2001

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (13) ◽  
pp. 3145-3166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolan L. Wang ◽  
Val R. Swail ◽  
Francis W. Zwiers
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Cyclone Activity ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
The North ◽  
Abrupt Changes ◽  
Increasing Trend ◽  
Activity Comparison

Abstract In this study, a cyclone detection/tracking algorithm was used to identify cyclones from two gridded 6-hourly mean sea level pressure datasets: the 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) and the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis (NNR) for 1958–2001. The cyclone activity climatology and changes inferred from the two reanalyses are intercompared. The cyclone climatologies and trends are found to be in reasonably good agreement with each other over northern Europe and eastern North America, while ERA-40 shows systematically stronger cyclone activity over the boreal extratropical oceans than does NNR. However, significant differences between ERA-40 and NNR are seen over the austral extratropics. In particular, ERA-40 shows significantly greater strong-cyclone activity and less weak-cyclone activity over all oceanic areas south of 40°S in all seasons, while it shows significantly stronger cyclone activity over most areas of the austral subtropics in the warm seasons. The most notable historical trends in cyclone activity are found to be associated with strong-cyclone activity. Over the boreal extratropics, both ERA-40 and NNR show a significant increasing trend in January–March (JFM) strong-cyclone activity over the high-latitude North Atlantic and over the midlatitude North Pacific, with a significant decreasing trend over the midlatitude North Atlantic and a small increasing trend over northern Europe. The JFM changes over the North Atlantic are associated with the mean position of the storm track shifting about 181 km northward. Importantly, there is no evidence of abrupt changes identified for the boreal extratropics, although previous studies have suggested that the upward trend found in the NNR data could be biased high. However, there exist a few abrupt changes over the austral extratropics, which appear to be attributable to the increasing availability of observations assimilated in the reanalyses. After diminishing the effects of these abrupt changes, strong-cyclone activity over the austral circumpolar oceanic region is identified to have an increasing trend in October–December (OND) and July–September (JAS), with a decreasing trend over the 40°–60°S zone in JAS.

Air–Sea Fluxes over the Gulf Stream Region: Atmospheric Controls and Trends

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2651-2670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Shaman ◽  
R. M. Samelson ◽  
Eric Skyllingstad
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
High Flux ◽  
Mode Water ◽  
The North ◽  
Storm Frequency ◽  
The North Atlantic

Abstract The intraseasonal variability of turbulent surface heat fluxes over the Gulf Stream extension and subtropical mode water regions of the North Atlantic, and long-term trends in these fluxes, are explored using NCEP–NCAR reanalysis. Wintertime sensible and latent heat fluxes from these surface waters are characterized by episodic high flux events due to cold air outbreaks from North America. Up to 60% of the November–March (NDJFM) total sensible heat flux and 45% of latent heat flux occurs on these high flux days. On average 41% (34%) of the total NDJFM sensible (latent) heat flux takes place during just 17% (20%) of the days. Over the last 60 years, seasonal NDJFM sensible and latent heat fluxes over the Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Mode Water Dynamic Experiment (CLIMODE) region have increased owing to an increased number of high flux event days. The increased storm frequency has altered average wintertime temperature conditions in the region, producing colder surface air conditions over the North American eastern seaboard and Labrador Sea and warmer temperatures over the Sargasso Sea. These temperature changes have increased low-level vertical wind shear and baroclinicity along the North Atlantic storm track over the last 60 years and may further favor the trend of increasing storm frequency over the Gulf Stream extension and adjacent region.

scholarly journals The Basic Ingredients of the North Atlantic Storm Track. Part II: Sea Surface Temperatures

2011 ◽  
Vol 68 (8) ◽  
pp. 1784-1805 ◽  
Author(s):  
David James Brayshaw ◽  
Brian Hoskins ◽  
Michael Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Horizontal Wind ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Sst Gradient

Abstract The impact of North Atlantic SST patterns on the storm track is investigated using a hierarchy of GCM simulations using idealized (aquaplanet) and “semirealistic” boundary conditions in the atmospheric component (HadAM3) of the third climate configuration of the Met Office Unified Model (HadCM3). This framework enables the mechanisms determining the tropospheric response to North Atlantic SST patterns to be examined, both in isolation and in combination with continental-scale landmasses and orography. In isolation, a “Gulf Stream” SST pattern acts to strengthen the downstream storm track while a “North Atlantic Drift” SST pattern weakens it. These changes are consistent with changes in the extratropical SST gradient and near-surface baroclinicity, and each storm-track response is associated with a consistent change in the tropospheric jet structure. Locally enhanced near-surface horizontal wind convergence is found over the warm side of strengthened SST gradients associated with ascending air and increased precipitation, consistent with previous studies. When the combined SST pattern is introduced into the semirealistic framework (including the “North American” continent and the “Rocky Mountains”), the results suggest that the topographically generated southwest–northeast tilt in the North Atlantic storm track is enhanced. In particular, the Gulf Stream shifts the storm track south in the western Atlantic whereas the strong high-latitude SST gradient in the northeastern Atlantic enhances the storm track there.

scholarly journals Why is the North Atlantic Oscillation More Predictable in December?

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baoqiang Tian ◽  
Ke Fan
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
The North ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly ◽  
Stratospheric Circulation ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
The Relationship

The prediction skill of the Climate Forecast System, version 2 (CFSv2), for the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is evaluated in three winter months (December, January, and February). The results show that the CFSv2 model can skillfully predict the December NAO one month in advance. There are two main contributors to NAO predictability in December. One is the predictability of the relationship between the North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) tripole and the NAO and the other is the second empirical orthogonal function (EOF) mode of the geopotential height at 50 hPa (Z50-EOF2). The relationship between the NAO and SSTA tripole index in December is the most significant in the three winter months. The significant monthly differences of surface heat fluxes in December over the whole North Atlantic are favorable for promoting the interaction between the NAO and North Atlantic SSTAs, in addition to improving the predictability of the December NAO. When the NAO is in a positive phase, easterly anomalies are located at the low and high latitudes and westerly anomalies prevail in the mid-latitudes of the troposphere. The correlation between the December Z50-EOF2 and zonal-mean zonal wind anomalies shows a similar spatial structure to that for the NAO. The possible reason why the CFSv2 model can predict the December NAO one month ahead is that it can reasonably reproduce the relationship between the December NAO and both the North Atlantic SST and stratospheric circulation.

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