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Stratospheric influence on baroclinic lifecycles and its connection to the Arctic Oscillation

Wittman, M. A. H., Polvani, L. M., Scott, R. K. and Charlton, A. J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8179-6220 (2004) Stratospheric influence on baroclinic lifecycles and its connection to the Arctic Oscillation. Geophysical Research Letters, 31 (16). L16113. ISSN 0094-8276

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To link to this item DOI: 10.1029/2004GL020503

Abstract/Summary

Using an idealized primitive equation model, we investigate how stratospheric conditions alter the development of baroclinic instability in the troposphere. Starting from the lifecycle paradigm of Thorncroft et al., we consider the evolution of baroclinic lifecycles resulting from the addition of a stratospheric jet to the LC1 initial condition. We find that the addition of the stratospheric jet yields a net surface geopotential height anomaly that strongly resembles the Arctic Oscillation. With the additional modification of the tropospheric winds to resemble the high-AO climatology, the surface response is amplified by a factor 10 and, though dominated by the tropospheric changes, shows similar sensitivity to the stratospheric conditions.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
ID Code:1568
Uncontrolled Keywords:BAROTROPIC SHEAR; TROPOSPHERE; INSTABILITY; MEMORY
Publisher:American Geophysical Union

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