Stratospheric influence on North Atlantic marine cold air outbreaks following sudden stratospheric warming events ...

• Main Authors: Afargan-Gerstman, Hilla, Polkova, Iuliia, Papritz, Lukas, Ruggieri, Paolo, King, Martin P., Athanasiadis, Panos J., Baehr, Johanna, Domeisen, Daniela
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Barents Sea; Labrador Sea; North Atlantic; Norwegian Sea
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000446455; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/446455

Marine cold air outbreaks (MCAOs) in the northeastern North Atlantic occur due to the advection of extremely cold air over an ice-free ocean. MCAOs are associated with a range of severe weather phenomena, such as polar lows, strong surface winds and intense cooling of the ocean surface. Given these extreme impacts, the identification of precursors of MCAOs is crucial for improved long-range prediction of associated impacts on Arctic infrastructure and human lives. MCAO frequency has been linked to the strength of the stratospheric polar vortex, but the study of connections to the occurrence of extreme stratospheric events, known as sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs), has been limited to cold extremes over land. Here, the influence of SSW events on MCAOs over the North Atlantic ocean is studied using reanalysis datasets. Overall, SSW events are found to be associated with more frequent MCAOs in the Barents Sea and the Norwegian Sea compared to climatology and less frequent MCAOs in the Labrador Sea. In ... : Weather and Climate Dynamics, 1 (2) ...