SOLAR ACTIVITY EFFECTS ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FRONTAL ZONES IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC

• Main Author: S. V. Veretenenko
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.537.2337; http://geo.phys.spbu.ru/materials_of_a_conference_2008/M/Veretenenko_Dergachev_Dmitriyev.pdf

Abstract. Long-term changes of the characteristics of frontal zones, which are the regions of high temperature contrasts influencing extratropical cyclone formation and development, were studied in the North Atlantic, the ‘reanalysis ’ data NCEP/NCAR being used. It was found that in the cold half of the year (the period of most intensive cyclogenesis at middle latitudes) the oscillations of the temperature gradients in the layer 1000-500 hPa near the south-eastern coasts of Greenland (the Arctic frontal zone) reveal strong ∼10-yr and ∼22-yr periodicities. The detected effects provide evidence of the influence of solar activity and related phenomena on the structure of the thermo-baric field of the troposphere at middle and high latitudes resulting in the enhancement of temperature contrasts in the frontal zones. In turn, the revealed changes of the frontal zone characteristics may be a reason for long-period changes of cyclonic activity at middle latitudes. 1.