A Nonlinear Theory of Atmospheric Blocking: A Potential Vorticity Gradient View

In this paper, an extended nonlinear multiscale interaction model of blocking events in the equivalent barotropic atmosphere is used to investigate the effect of a slowly varying zonal wind in the meridional direction on dipole blocking that is regarded as a nonlinear Rossby wave packet. It is shown that the meridional gradient of potential vorticity (PVy=∂PV/∂y) prior to the blocking onset, which is related to the background zonal wind and its nonuniform meridional shear, can significantly affect the lifetime, intensity, and north–south asymmetry of dipole blocking, while the blocking dipole itself is driven by preexisting incident synoptic-scale eddies. The magnitude of the background PVy determines the energy dispersion and nonlinearity of blocking. It is revealed that a small background PVy is a prerequisite for strong and long-lived eddy-driven blocking that behaves as a persistent meandering westerly jet stream, while the blocking establishment further reduces the PVy within the blocking region, resulting in a positive feedback between blocking and PVy. When the core of the background westerly jet shifts from higher to lower latitudes, the blocking shows a northwest–southeast-oriented dipole with a strong anticyclonic anomaly to the northwest and a weak cyclonic anomaly to the southeast as its northern pole moves westward more rapidly and has weaker energy dispersion and stronger nonlinearity than its southern pole because of the smaller PVy in higher latitudes. The opposite is true when the background jet shifts toward higher latitudes. The asymmetry of dipole blocking vanishes when the background jet shows a symmetric double-peak structure. Thus, a small prior PVy is a favorable precursor for the occurrence of long-lived and large-amplitude blocking.

The energy spectrum in a barotropic atmosphere

In a forced-dissipative barotropic model of the atmosphere on a spherical planet, by following mathematical techniques in (Thompson, P. D.: The equilibrium energy spectrum of randomly forced two-dimensional turbulence, Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 30, 1593–1598, 1973) but applying them in a novel context of the discrete spectrum on a rotating sphere, the "minus 2" energy spectrum for wavenumbers much greater than a characteristic wavenumber of the baroclinic forcing has been obtained if the forcing is taken in the simplest and most fundamental form. Some observation-based atmospheric kinetic energy spectra, with their slopes lying between "minus 2" and "minus 3" laws, are discussed from the perspective of the deduced "minus 2" energy spectrum.

Low-Frequency Variability in the Midlatitude Baroclinic Atmosphere Induced by an Oceanic Thermal Front

This study examines the flow induced by an east–west-oriented oceanic thermal front in a highly idealized baroclinic model. Previous work showed that thermal fronts could produce energetic midlatitude jets in an equivalent-barotropic atmosphere and that barotropic instabilities of this jet had dominant periods of 25–30 and 65–75 days. The present study extends this work to a two-mode baroclinic free atmosphere. The baroclinic jet produced in this case is subject to both barotropic and baroclinic instabilities. A barotropic symmetric instability propagates westward with periods of roughly 30 days and is similar to those found in the equivalent-barotropic model. A baroclinic instability results in standing-dipole anomalies and oscillates with a period of 6–8 months. A mixed barotropic–baroclinic instability results in anomalies that propagate northward, perpendicular to the jet, with a period of 2–3 months. The later anomalies are reminiscent of the 70-day oscillation found over the North Atlantic in observed fields. The atmospheric flow has two distinct states: the flow in the high-energy state exhibits two large gyres and a strong eastward jet; its antisymmetric component is dominant. The low-energy flow is characterized by small gyres and a weak jet. The model’s dynamics depends on the layer-depth ratio. When the model is nearly equivalent-barotropic, symmetric oscillatory modes dominate. As the two layers become nearly equal, antisymmetric oscillatory modes become significant and the mean energy of the flow increases. When the oceanic thermal front’s strength T* is weak (T* ≤ 1.5°C), the flow is steady. For intermediate values of the strength (1.5°C < T* < 3°C), several oscillatory instabilities set in. As the frontal strength increases further (T* ≥ 3°C), the flow becomes more turbulent. These results all depend on the atmospheric model’s horizontal resolution being sufficiently high.