The role of air–sea fluxes for the water vapour isotope signals in the cold and warm sectors of extratropical cyclones over the Southern Ocean

Meridional atmospheric transport is an important process in the climate system and has implications for the availability of heat and moisture at high latitudes. Near-surface cold and warm temperature advection over the ocean in the context of extratropical cyclones additionally leads to important air–sea exchange. In this paper, we investigate the impact of these air–sea fluxes on the stable water isotope (SWI) composition of water vapour in the Southern Ocean's atmospheric boundary layer. SWIs serve as a tool to trace phase change processes involved in the atmospheric water cycle and, thus, provide important insight into moist atmospheric processes associated with extratropical cyclones. Here we combine a 3-month ship-based SWI measurement data set around Antarctica with a series of regional high-resolution numerical model simulations from the isotope-enabled numerical weather prediction model COSMOiso. We objectively identify atmospheric cold and warm temperature advection associated with the cold and warm sector of extratropical cyclones, respectively, based on the air–sea temperature difference applied to the measurement and the simulation data sets. A Lagrangian composite analysis of temperature advection based on the COSMOiso simulation data is compiled to identify the main processes affecting the observed variability of the isotopic signal in marine boundary layer water vapour in the region from 35 to 70∘ S. This analysis shows that the cold and warm sectors of extratropical cyclones are associated with contrasting SWI signals. Specifically, the measurements show that the median values of δ18O and δ2H in the atmospheric water vapour are 3.8 ‰ and 27.9 ‰ higher during warm than during cold advection. The median value of the second-order isotope variable deuterium excess d, which can be used as a measure of non-equilibrium processes during phase changes, is 6.4 ‰ lower during warm than during cold advection. These characteristic isotope signals during cold and warm advection reflect the opposite air–sea fluxes associated with these large-scale transport events. The trajectory-based analysis reveals that the SWI signals in the cold sector are mainly shaped by ocean evaporation. In the warm sector, the air masses experience a net loss of moisture due to dew deposition as they are advected over the relatively colder ocean, which leads to the observed low d. We show that additionally the formation of clouds and precipitation in moist adiabatically ascending warm air parcels can decrease d in boundary layer water vapour. These findings illustrate the highly variable isotopic composition in water vapour due to contrasting air–sea interactions during cold and warm advection, respectively, induced by the circulation associated with extratropical cyclones. SWIs can thus potentially be useful as tracers for meridional air advection and other characteristics associated with the dynamics of the storm tracks over interannual timescales.

Dynamics of East Asian Spring Rainband and spring-autumn contrast: Environmental forcings of large-scale circulation

Dynamics of the East Asian spring rainband are investigated with reanalysis dataset and station observations. Here, it is revealed that the rainband is anchored by external forcings. Midtropospheric jet core stays quasi-stationary around Japan. It has two branches in its entry region, which originate from the south and north flanks of Tibetan Plateau and then run northeastward and southeastward, respectively. The southern branch advects warm air from the Hengduan-Tibetan plateaus northeastwards, forming rainband over southern China through both causing adiabatic ascent motion and triggering diabatic feedback. The rainband is much stronger in spring than in autumn due to the stronger diabatic heating over Hengduan-Tibetan Plateau, more southward-displaced midtropospheric jet and resultant stronger warm advection over southern China. The northern jet branch forms a zonally-elongated cold advection belt, which reaches the maximum around northern China, and then weakens and extends eastwards towards east of Japan. The westerly jet also steers strong disturbance activities roughly collocated with the cold advection belt via baroclinic instability. The high disturbance activities belt causes large cumulative warm advections (CWA) through drastically increasing extremely warm-advection days in its eastern and south flank, where weak cold advection prevails. CWA is more essential for monthly/seasonally rainfall than conventionally-used time-average temperature advection because it is revealed that strengthened warm advection can increase rainfall through positive diabatic feedback, while cold advection cannot cause negative rainfall. Thus, the rainband is collocated with the large CWA belt instead of the 48 warm advection south of it. This rainband is jointed to the rainband over southern China, forming the long southwest-northeast-oriented East Asian spring rainband. Southeastward-increasing moisture slightly displaces the rainband southeastwards.

The role of air–sea fluxes for the water vapour isotope signals in the cold and warm sectors of extratropical cyclones over the Southern Ocean

Meridional atmospheric transport is an important process in the climate system and has implications for the availability of heat and moisture at high latitudes. Near-surface advection of cold and warm temperature over the ocean in the context of extratropical cyclones additionally leads to important air–sea exchange. In this paper, we investigate the impact of these air–sea fluxes on the stable water isotope (SWI) composition of water vapour in the Southern Ocean’s atmospheric boundary layer. SWIs serve as a tool to trace phase change processes involved in the atmospheric water cycle and, thus, provide important insight into moist atmospheric processes associated with extratropical cyclones. Here we combine a three-month ship-based SWI measurement data set around Antarctica with a series of regional high resolution numerical model simulations from the isotope-enabled numerical weather prediction model COSMOiso. We objectively identify atmospheric cold and warm temperature advection associated with the cold and warm sector of extratropical cyclones, respectively, based on the air–sea temperature difference applied to the measurement and the simulation data sets. A Lagrangian composite analysis of cold and warm temperature advection based on the COSMOiso simulation data is compiled to identify the main processes affecting the observed variability of the isotopic signal in marine boundary layer water vapour in the region from 35° S to 70° S. This analysis shows that the cold and warm sectors of extratropical cyclones are associated with contrasting SWI signals. Specifically, the measurements show that the median values of δ18O and δ2H in the atmospheric water vapour are 3.6 ‰ and 23.2 ‰ higher during warm than during cold advection. The median value of the second-order isotope variable deuterium excess d, which can be used as a measure of non-equilibrium processes during phase changes, is 5.9 ‰ lower during warm than during cold advection. These characteristic isotope signals during cold and warm advection reflect the opposite air–sea fluxes associated with these large-scale transport events. The trajectory-based analysis reveals that the SWI signals in the cold sector are mainly shaped by ocean evaporation. In the warm sector, the air masses experience a net loss of moisture due to dew deposition as they are advected over the relatively colder ocean, which leads to the observed low d. We show that additionally the formation of clouds and precipitation in moist adiabatically ascending warm air parcels can decrease d in boundary layer water vapour. These findings illustrate the highly variable isotopic composition in water vapour due to contrasting air–sea interactions during cold and warm advection, respectively, induced by the circulation associated with extratropical cyclones. SWIs can thus potentially be useful as tracers for meridional air advection and other characteristics associated with the dynamics of the storm tracks over interannual timescales.

Convection Initiation Aided by Lake-Breeze Convergence over the Niagara Peninsula

Observations from the 2015 Environment and Climate Change Canada Pan/Parapan American Science Showcase (ECPASS) and real-case, cloud-resolving numerical simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model are used to investigate two cases of moist convection forced by lake-breeze convergence over southern Ontario (18 July and 15 August 2015). The two cases shared several characteristics, including high pressure conditions, similar morning soundings, and isolated afternoon convection along a line of lake-breeze convergence between Lakes Erie and Ontario. However, the convection was significantly stronger in the August case, with robustly deeper clouds and larger radar reflectivities than in the July case. Synoptic and mesoscale analyses of these events reveal that the key difference between them was their large-scale forcing. The July event exhibited a combination of strong warm advection and large-scale descent at midlevels (850–650 hPa), which created an inversion layer that capped cloud tops at 4–6 km. The August case exhibited similar features (large-scale descent and warm advection), but these were focused at higher levels (700–400 hPa) and weaker. As a consequence, the convection in the August case was less suppressed at midlevels and ascended deeper (reaching over 8 km). Although the subcloud updraft along the lake-breeze convergence zone was also found to be stronger in the August case, this difference was found to be an effect, rather than a cause, of stronger moist convection within the cloud layer.

Factors Contributing to Record-Breaking Heat Waves over the Great Plains during the 1930s Dust Bowl

Record-breaking summer heat waves were experienced across the contiguous United States during the decade-long “Dust Bowl” drought in the 1930s. Using high-quality daily temperature observations, the Dust Bowl heat wave characteristics are assessed with metrics that describe variations in heat wave activity and intensity. Despite the sparser station coverage in the early record, there is robust evidence for the emergence of exceptional heat waves across the central Great Plains, the most extreme of which were preconditioned by anomalously dry springs. This is consistent with the entire twentieth-century record: summer heat waves over the Great Plains develop on average ~15–20 days earlier after anomalously dry springs, compared to summers following wet springs. Heat waves following dry springs are also significantly longer and hotter, indicative of the importance of land surface feedbacks in heat wave intensification. A distinctive anomalous continental-wide circulation pattern accompanied exceptional heat waves in the Great Plains, including those of the Dust Bowl decade. An anomalous broad surface pressure ridge straddling an upper-level blocking anticyclone over the western United States forced substantial subsidence and adiabatic warming over the Great Plains, and triggered anomalous southward warm advection over southern regions. This prolonged and amplified the heat waves over the central United States, which in turn gradually spread westward following heat wave emergence. The results imply that exceptional heat waves are preconditioned, triggered, and strengthened across the Great Plains through a combination of spring drought, upper-level continental-wide anticyclonic flow, and warm advection from the north.

Effect of the East Asian Westerly Jet’s Intensity on Summer Rainfall in the Yangtze River Valley and Its Mechanism

Many studies have shown that the northward (southward) displacement of the East Asian westerly jet (EAWJ) drastically reduces (increases) summer rainfall in the Yangtze River valley (YRV). However, the effect of the jet’s intensity on interannual variation in summer rainfall has not been systematically studied. The present study investigates the effect of the EAWJ’s intensity on this interannual variation and analyzes the mechanism by which this process occurs. In early summer, the EAWJ consists of two branches: one located over northern continental East Asia [western branch (EAWJWB)] and one extending from southern China to the northern Pacific [eastern branch (EAWJEB)]. The former merges into the latter over the Yellow Sea. A stronger EAWJEB leads to increased rainfall in the YRV, while the EAWJWB does not significantly affect rainfall in the YRV. The faster EAWJEB directly strengthens midtropospheric warm advection over the YRV because the corresponding changes in the meridional wind and horizontal temperature gradient are insignificant. The strengthened warm advection increases rainfall in the YRV by accelerating both adiabatic ascent and the ascent associated with diabatic heating primarily generated by convection. In midsummer, the EAWJ has no branches and is located over the midlatitudes of Asia. The strengthening of the EAWJ reduces rainfall in the YRV in midsummer through the Pacific–Japan (PJ) pattern. As the EAWJ strengthens, the PJ pattern turns to its positive phase. This results in the deceleration of the midtropospheric westerly wind and a reduction in the meridional temperature contrast, which weakens midtropospheric warm advection. The weakened warm advection in turn reduces rainfall in the YRV, following the process outlined for early summer.

Atmospheric Boundary Layer Structure and Turbulence during Sea Fog on the Southern China Coast

Small-scale turbulence has an essential role in sea-fog formation and evolution, but is not completely understood. This study analyzes measurements of the small-scale turbulence, together with the boundary layer structure and the synoptic and mesoscale conditions over the life cycle of a cold advection fog event and a warm advection fog event, both off the coast of southern China. The measurement data come from two sites: one on the coast and one at sea. These findings include the following: 1) For cold advection fog, the top can extend above the inversion base, but formation of an overlaying cloud causes the fog to dissipate. 2) For warm advection fog, two layers of low cloud can merge to form deep fog, with the depth exceeding 1000 m, when strong advection of warm moist air produces active thermal-turbulence mixing above the thermal-turbulence interface. 3) Turbulence near the sea surface is mainly thermally driven for cold advection fog, but mechanically driven for warm advection fog. 4) The momentum fluxes of both fog cases are below 0.04 kg m−1 s−2. However, the sensible and latent heat flux differ between the cases: in the cold advection fog case, the sensible and latent heat fluxes are roughly upward, averaging 2.58 and 26.75 W m−2, respectively; however, in the warm advection fog case, the sensible and latent heat flux are mostly downward, averaging −6.98 and −6.22 W m−2, respectively. 5) Low-level vertical advection is important for both fogs, but has a larger influence on fog development in the warm advection fog case.

Asymmetry of Winter European Surface Air Temperature Extremes and the North Atlantic Oscillation

Interannual variations of winter warm and cold extremes in Europe are investigated. It is found that the variations are closely connected to the phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The leading EOF of the winter cold (warm) surface air temperature (SAT) extreme frequency shows an enhanced occurrence over western (eastern) Europe. The SAT probability distribution function of the cold extreme winter exhibits both a decrease of the mean SAT and a marked increase in SAT variance, whereas it shows only a shift of the mean SAT to the warmer side for extreme warm winters. This study reveals an asymmetry in location between the cold and warm extremes, caused by the NAO modulations of blocking events and other submonthly variations. Winters with frequent cold extremes are mainly accompanied by the eastern Atlantic blocking. The circulation causes not only marked local cooling but also increased SAT gradient, resulting in both enhanced SAT variance and increased occurrence of cold extremes. By contrast, winters with frequent warm extremes are associated with the northeast–southwest tilted positive NAO pattern. The warm advection by the submonthly perturbations is responsible for the development of warm extremes. The reduced SAT gradient due to enhanced warm advection weakens SAT variance over northern Europe. Thus, the cold extremes are larger in terms of deviations from the monthly mean than the warm extremes.