Frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic –a climatological characterisation
The ambient conditions during cyclogenesis on fronts in the North Atlantic (NA) are characterised climatologically in the ERA‐Interim dataset. These ‘secondary’ cyclones, which grow from frontal waves, are typically small in scale, shallow and deepen rapidly, and pose a challenge to forecasters and...
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crwiley:10.1002/qj.2584 2024-06-02T08:11:18+00:00 Frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic –a climatological characterisation Schemm, Sebastian Sprenger, Michael 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.2584 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fqj.2584 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.2584 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/qj.2584 https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.2584 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society volume 141, issue 693, page 2989-3005 ISSN 0035-9009 1477-870X journal-article 2015 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2584 2024-05-03T10:47:48Z The ambient conditions during cyclogenesis on fronts in the North Atlantic (NA) are characterised climatologically in the ERA‐Interim dataset. These ‘secondary’ cyclones, which grow from frontal waves, are typically small in scale, shallow and deepen rapidly, and pose a challenge to forecasters and numerical weather prediction models. Frontal‐wave development has been studied intensively in the past based on observations (e.g. FASTEX), real‐case studies or analytical models. In this study, frontal‐wave cyclogenesis is studied from a climatological perspective and is detected by a combination of two automated identification methods for the period between 1979 and 2014. A climatology of frontal‐wave cyclogenesis is presented. Horizontal composites provide an estimate of the climatological mean of conditions during frontal‐wave cyclogenesis which may prove useful in the assessment of the realism of proposed idealized models of frontogenesis. The findings are also compared with assumptions made in earlier idealized studies of frontal waves. The composites reveal coherent structures of diabatically generated low‐level PV in the lower troposphere, neutral moist static stability at cyclogenesis and an ambient lower troposphere close to saturation. The vertical PV structure in the east NA is more vertically aligned than in the west NA and PV anomalies from the upper and lower levels reach deeper into the mid‐troposphere, which indicates an enhanced phase‐lock between the two anomalies. Previous studies suggest the existence of an upper limit of along‐frontal stretching above which frontal‐wave development is strongly suppressed. The presented multi‐decadal analysis confirms its existence in a range between 0.6 and 0.8 × 10 −5 s −1 . Finally a climatology of along‐frontal stretching for the NA is presented and compared to the fraction of cyclogenesis forming on frontal waves. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Wiley Online Library Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 141 693 2989 3005 |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
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English |
description |
The ambient conditions during cyclogenesis on fronts in the North Atlantic (NA) are characterised climatologically in the ERA‐Interim dataset. These ‘secondary’ cyclones, which grow from frontal waves, are typically small in scale, shallow and deepen rapidly, and pose a challenge to forecasters and numerical weather prediction models. Frontal‐wave development has been studied intensively in the past based on observations (e.g. FASTEX), real‐case studies or analytical models. In this study, frontal‐wave cyclogenesis is studied from a climatological perspective and is detected by a combination of two automated identification methods for the period between 1979 and 2014. A climatology of frontal‐wave cyclogenesis is presented. Horizontal composites provide an estimate of the climatological mean of conditions during frontal‐wave cyclogenesis which may prove useful in the assessment of the realism of proposed idealized models of frontogenesis. The findings are also compared with assumptions made in earlier idealized studies of frontal waves. The composites reveal coherent structures of diabatically generated low‐level PV in the lower troposphere, neutral moist static stability at cyclogenesis and an ambient lower troposphere close to saturation. The vertical PV structure in the east NA is more vertically aligned than in the west NA and PV anomalies from the upper and lower levels reach deeper into the mid‐troposphere, which indicates an enhanced phase‐lock between the two anomalies. Previous studies suggest the existence of an upper limit of along‐frontal stretching above which frontal‐wave development is strongly suppressed. The presented multi‐decadal analysis confirms its existence in a range between 0.6 and 0.8 × 10 −5 s −1 . Finally a climatology of along‐frontal stretching for the NA is presented and compared to the fraction of cyclogenesis forming on frontal waves. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schemm, Sebastian Sprenger, Michael |
spellingShingle |
Schemm, Sebastian Sprenger, Michael Frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic –a climatological characterisation |
author_facet |
Schemm, Sebastian Sprenger, Michael |
author_sort |
Schemm, Sebastian |
title |
Frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic –a climatological characterisation |
title_short |
Frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic –a climatological characterisation |
title_full |
Frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic –a climatological characterisation |
title_fullStr |
Frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic –a climatological characterisation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the North Atlantic –a climatological characterisation |
title_sort |
frontal‐wave cyclogenesis in the north atlantic –a climatological characterisation |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.2584 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fqj.2584 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.2584 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/qj.2584 https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.2584 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society volume 141, issue 693, page 2989-3005 ISSN 0035-9009 1477-870X |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2584 |
container_title |
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society |
container_volume |
141 |
container_issue |
693 |
container_start_page |
2989 |
op_container_end_page |
3005 |
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1800757390227800064 |