Mid-level convection in a warm conveyor belt accelerates the jet stream

• Main Authors: Blanchard, Nicolas, Pantillon, Florian, Chaboureau, Jean-Pierre, Delanoë, Julien
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'aérologie (LA), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Météo France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Météo France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.ME]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Meteorology; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02999222; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02999222/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02999222/file/wcd-2020-53.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2020-53

Jet streams and potential vorticity (PV) gradients along upper-level ridges and troughs form a waveguide that governs midlatitude dynamics. Warm conveyor belt (WCB) outflows often inject low-PV air into ridges and their representation is seen as a source of uncertainty for downstream forecasts. Recent studies have highlighted the presence of mesoscale structures of negative PV in WCBs, the impact of which on large-scale dynamics is still debated. Here, fine-scale observations of cloud and wind structures acquired with airborne Doppler radar and dropsondes provide rare information on the WCB outflow of the Stalactite cyclone and the associated upper-level ridge on 2 October 2016 during the North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment. The observations reveal a complex tropopause structure with a high PV tongue separating the northwestern edge of the ridge in two parts, each with cirrus-type clouds and accompanied by a jet stream core, and bounded by a tropopause fold. A reference, convection-permitting simulation with full physics reproduces well the observed mesoscale structures and reveals the presence of elongated negative PV bands along the eastern jet stream core. In contrast, a sensitivity experiment with heat exchanges due to cloud processes cut off shows lower cloud tops, weaker jet stream cores, a ridge less extended westward, and the absence of negative PV bands. A Lagrangian analysis based on online trajectories shows that the anticyclonic branch of the WCB outflow feeds the eastern jet stream core in the reference simulation, while it is absent in the sensitivity experiment. The anticyclonic ascents and negative PV bands originate from the same region near the cyclone's bent-back front. The most rapid ascents coincide with mid-level convective cells identified by clustering analysis, which are located in a region of conditional instability below the jet stream core and above a low-level jet. Horizontal PV dipoles are found around these cells and with the negative poles reaching absolute ...