The Intraseasonal and Interannual Variability of Arctic Temperature and Specific Humidity Inversions

Temperature and humidity inversions are common in the Arctic’s lower troposphere, and are a crucial component of the Arctic’s climate system. In this study, we quantify the intraseasonal oscillation of Arctic temperature and specific humidity inversions and investigate its interannual variability us...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmosphere
Main Authors: Lejiang Yu, Qinghua Yang, Mingyu Zhou, Xubin Zeng, Donald H. Lenschow, Xianqiao Wang, Bo Han
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019
Subjects:
Arctic
surface inversions
elevated inversions
intraseasonal variability
Arctic Oscillation (AO)
Arctic Dipole (AD)
Meteorology. Climatology
QC851-999
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10040214
https://doaj.org/article/051a70947b4e4d67b62ac3c02673bebc
Description
Summary:Temperature and humidity inversions are common in the Arctic’s lower troposphere, and are a crucial component of the Arctic’s climate system. In this study, we quantify the intraseasonal oscillation of Arctic temperature and specific humidity inversions and investigate its interannual variability using data from the Surface Heat Balance of the Arctic (SHEBA) experiment from October 1997 to September 1998 and the European Centre for Medium-Range Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis (ERA)-interim for the 1979–2017 period. In January 1998, there were two noticeable elevated inversions and one surface inversion. The transitions between elevated and surface-based inversions were associated with the intraseasonal variability of the temperature and humidity differences between 850 and 950 hPa. The self-organizing map (SOM) technique is utilized to obtain the main modes of surface and elevated temperature and humidity inversions on intraseasonal time scales. Low (high) pressure and more (less) cloud cover are related to elevated (surface) temperature and humidity inversions. The frequency of strong (weak) elevated inversions over the eastern hemisphere has decreased (increased) in the past three decades. The wintertime Arctic Oscillation (AO) and Arctic Dipole (AD) during their positive phases have a significant effect on the occurrence of surface and elevated inversions for two Nodes only.

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