Search results for "Rossby wave"
showing 10 items of 32 documents
Recent changes in air temperature, heat waves occurrences, and atmospheric circulation in Northern Africa
2013
This study documents the time evolution of air temperature and heat waves occurrences over Northern Africa for the period 1979-2011. A significant warming (1°-3°C), appearing by the mid-1960s over Sahara and Sahel, is associated with higher/lesser frequency of warm/cold temperatures, as with longer duration and higher occurrences of heat waves. Heat waves episodes of at least 4 day duration have been examined after removing the long-term evolution. These episodes are associated with specific anomalies: (i) in spring, positive low-level temperature anomalies over the Sahel and Sahara; low and midlevel cyclonic rotation over Morocco associated with a Rossby wave pattern, lessening the Harmatt…
Dynamics of a local Alpine flooding event in October 2011: moisture source and large‐scale circulation
2014
Alpine heavy precipitation events often affect small catchments, although the circulation pattern leading to the event extends over the entire North Atlantic. The various scale interactions involved are particularly challenging for the numerical weather prediction of such events. Unlike previous studies focusing on the southern Alps, here a comprehensive study of a heavy precipitation event in the northern Alps in October 2011 is presented with particular focus on the role of the large-scale circulation in the North Atlantic/European region. During the event exceptionally high amounts of total precipitable water occurred in and north of the Alps. This moisture was initially transported alon…
Rossby Wave Packets on the Midlatitude Waveguide-A Review
2018
Abstract Rossby wave packets (RWPs) are Rossby waves for which the amplitude has a local maximum and decays to smaller values at larger distances. This review focuses on upper-tropospheric transient RWPs along the midlatitude jet stream. Their central characteristic is the propagation in the zonal direction as well as the transfer of wave energy from one individual trough or ridge to its downstream neighbor, a process called “downstream development.” These RWPs sometimes act as long-range precursors to extreme weather and presumably have an influence on the predictability of midlatitude weather systems. The paper reviews research progress in this area with an emphasis on developments during…
On the Co-Occurrence of Warm Conveyor Belt Outflows and PV Streamers
2014
Abstract The co-occurrence of warm conveyor belts (WCBs), strongly ascending moist airstreams in extratropical cyclones, and stratospheric potential vorticity (PV) streamers, indicators for breaking Rossby waves on the tropopause, is investigated for a 21-yr period in the Northern Hemisphere using Interim European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) data. WCB outflows and PV streamers are respectively identified as two- and three-dimensional objects and tracked during their life cycle. PV streamers are more frequent than WCB outflows and nearly 15% of all PV streamers co-occur with WCBs during their life cycle, whereas about 60% of all WCB outflows co…
The key role of diabatic processes in modifying the upper-tropospheric wave guide: a North Atlantic case-study
2011
This study highlights the importance of diabatic processes for the complex interaction of weather systems in the North Atlantic–European sector during the week of 7–14 September 2008. A chain of events occurred including the extratropical transition (ET) of hurricane Hanna, a subsequently developing extratropical cyclone, the formation of an upper-level potential vorticity (PV) streamer that protruded towards Europe and triggered intense rainfall, and the genesis of a Mediterranean cyclone. A PV perspective is adopted along with trajectory calculations to elucidate the diabatic modification of the midlatitude flow. Important diabatic PV modifications occurred at upper levels, associated wit…
Potential Vorticity Dynamics of Forecast Errors: A Quantitative Case Study
2018
Abstract Synoptic-scale error growth near the tropopause is investigated from a process-based perspective. Following previous work, a potential vorticity (PV) error tendency equation is derived and partitioned into individual contributions to yield insight into the processes governing error growth near the tropopause. Importantly, we focus here on the further amplification of preexisting errors and not on the origin of errors. The individual contributions to error growth are quantified in a case study of a 6-day forecast. In this case, localized mesoscale error maxima have formed by forecast day 2. These maxima organize into a wavelike pattern and reach the Rossby wave scale around forecast…
Diagnosing the Horizontal Propagation of Rossby Wave Packets along the Midlatitude Waveguide
2017
AbstractIt has been suggested that upper-tropospheric Rossby wave packets propagating along the midlatitude waveguide may play a role for triggering severe weather. This motivates the search for robust methods to detect and track Rossby wave packets and to diagnose their properties. In the framework of several observed cases, this paper compares different methods that have been proposed for these tasks, with an emphasis on horizontal propagation and on a particular formulation of a wave activity flux previously suggested by Takaya and Nakamura. The utility of this flux is compromised by the semigeostrophic nature of upper-tropospheric Rossby waves, but this problem can partly be overcome by…
The Extratropical Transition of Tropical Cyclones. Part II: Interaction with the Midlatitude Flow, Downstream Impacts, and Implications for Predictab…
2019
Abstract The extratropical transition (ET) of tropical cyclones often has an important impact on the nature and predictability of the midlatitude flow. This review synthesizes the current understanding of the dynamical and physical processes that govern this impact and highlights the relationship of downstream development during ET to high-impact weather, with a focus on downstream regions. It updates a previous review from 2003 and identifies new and emerging challenges and future research needs. First, the mechanisms through which the transitioning cyclone impacts the midlatitude flow in its immediate vicinity are discussed. This “direct impact” manifests in the formation of a jet streak …
A Global Climatology of Tropical Moisture Exports
2013
Abstract In a recent paper, a climatology of tropical moisture exports (TMEs) to the Northern Hemisphere (NH) was constructed on the basis of 7-day forward trajectories, started daily from the tropical lower troposphere, which were required to reach a water vapor flux of at least 100 g kg−1 m s−1 somewhere north of 35°N. It was shown that TMEs contribute significantly to regional precipitation. Here, the authors complement and extend this work by (i) using 6-hourly European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Interim Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) data from 1979 to 2010 instead of the earlier 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40), (ii) extending the climatology to the Southern Hemispher…
Tropical–extratropical interactions related to upper-level troughs at low latitudes
2007
Abstract Momentum and kinetic energy fluxes associated with low-latitude transient disturbances at upper-levels play an important role in the general circulation of the atmosphere. They are related to eastward and equatorward propagating, positively tilted wave trains from the extratropics. Theoretical, modelling and observational studies show that this particular kind of tropical–extratropical interaction is most common in regions of mean upper-level westerlies at low latitudes, i.e. over the central and eastern Pacific and Atlantic Oceans during boreal winter and spring. The penetration of an upper-level trough into the Tropics is often associated with enhanced convection and the formatio…