The full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea observed by three research aircraft flights
Abstract During 3–4 March 2008, the Norwegian IPY‐THORPEX field campaign successfully carried out three flight missions that observed the full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea. Here the three‐dimensional structure of the polar low has been investigated using dropsonde data from the t...
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crwiley:10.1002/qj.825 2024-06-23T07:54:13+00:00 The full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea observed by three research aircraft flights Føre, Ivan Kristjánsson, Jón Egill Saetra, Øyvind Breivik, Øyvind Røsting, Bjørn Shapiro, Melvyn 2011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.825 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fqj.825 https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.825 en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society volume 137, issue 660, page 1659-1673 ISSN 0035-9009 1477-870X journal-article 2011 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.825 2024-06-06T04:19:30Z Abstract During 3–4 March 2008, the Norwegian IPY‐THORPEX field campaign successfully carried out three flight missions that observed the full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea. Here the three‐dimensional structure of the polar low has been investigated using dropsonde data from the three flights. The polar low developed in a cold air outbreak, with temperature differences between the sea surface and 500 hPa of about 45–50°C. Cross‐sections show that the horizontal gradients of potential temperature weakened as the polar low matured, suggesting that baroclinic energy conversion took place. Dropsonde data of potential temperature and relative humidity show evidence of a tropopause fold, which is possibly a manifestation of upper‐level forcing. This is corroborated by potential vorticity inversion, which shows a dominant role of upper‐level forcing throughout the polar low's lifetime. During the cyclogenesis stage the polar low circulation was confined below 700 hPa, with a northerly low‐level jet of 26 m s −1 . In the mature stage, its circulation reached up to the tropopause (∼450 hPa), with maximum wind speed between 700 and 900 hPa of about 26–28 m s −1 . At this stage the polar low warm core was about 3 K warmer than surrounding air masses. The deep moist towers at the eye‐like structure of the polar low extended up to the tropopause with relative humidity values above 70%, indicating a possibly important role for condensational heating in the development. Estimates of surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat using temperature and moisture from the dropsonde data show latent heat fluxes west of the polar low increasing from 175 to 300 W m −2 as the low matured, while the sensible heat fluxes rose from 200 to 280 W m −2 , suggesting a gradually increasing contribution of surface fluxes to the energetics of the polar low with time. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society Article in Journal/Newspaper IPY Norwegian Sea Wiley Online Library Norwegian Sea Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 137 660 1659 1673 |
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Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract During 3–4 March 2008, the Norwegian IPY‐THORPEX field campaign successfully carried out three flight missions that observed the full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea. Here the three‐dimensional structure of the polar low has been investigated using dropsonde data from the three flights. The polar low developed in a cold air outbreak, with temperature differences between the sea surface and 500 hPa of about 45–50°C. Cross‐sections show that the horizontal gradients of potential temperature weakened as the polar low matured, suggesting that baroclinic energy conversion took place. Dropsonde data of potential temperature and relative humidity show evidence of a tropopause fold, which is possibly a manifestation of upper‐level forcing. This is corroborated by potential vorticity inversion, which shows a dominant role of upper‐level forcing throughout the polar low's lifetime. During the cyclogenesis stage the polar low circulation was confined below 700 hPa, with a northerly low‐level jet of 26 m s −1 . In the mature stage, its circulation reached up to the tropopause (∼450 hPa), with maximum wind speed between 700 and 900 hPa of about 26–28 m s −1 . At this stage the polar low warm core was about 3 K warmer than surrounding air masses. The deep moist towers at the eye‐like structure of the polar low extended up to the tropopause with relative humidity values above 70%, indicating a possibly important role for condensational heating in the development. Estimates of surface fluxes of sensible and latent heat using temperature and moisture from the dropsonde data show latent heat fluxes west of the polar low increasing from 175 to 300 W m −2 as the low matured, while the sensible heat fluxes rose from 200 to 280 W m −2 , suggesting a gradually increasing contribution of surface fluxes to the energetics of the polar low with time. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Føre, Ivan Kristjánsson, Jón Egill Saetra, Øyvind Breivik, Øyvind Røsting, Bjørn Shapiro, Melvyn |
spellingShingle |
Føre, Ivan Kristjánsson, Jón Egill Saetra, Øyvind Breivik, Øyvind Røsting, Bjørn Shapiro, Melvyn The full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea observed by three research aircraft flights |
author_facet |
Føre, Ivan Kristjánsson, Jón Egill Saetra, Øyvind Breivik, Øyvind Røsting, Bjørn Shapiro, Melvyn |
author_sort |
Føre, Ivan |
title |
The full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea observed by three research aircraft flights |
title_short |
The full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea observed by three research aircraft flights |
title_full |
The full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea observed by three research aircraft flights |
title_fullStr |
The full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea observed by three research aircraft flights |
title_full_unstemmed |
The full life cycle of a polar low over the Norwegian Sea observed by three research aircraft flights |
title_sort |
full life cycle of a polar low over the norwegian sea observed by three research aircraft flights |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.825 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fqj.825 https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.825 |
geographic |
Norwegian Sea |
geographic_facet |
Norwegian Sea |
genre |
IPY Norwegian Sea |
genre_facet |
IPY Norwegian Sea |
op_source |
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society volume 137, issue 660, page 1659-1673 ISSN 0035-9009 1477-870X |
op_rights |
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.825 |
container_title |
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society |
container_volume |
137 |
container_issue |
660 |
container_start_page |
1659 |
op_container_end_page |
1673 |
_version_ |
1802646283299586048 |