Atmospheric Circulation Regimes in a Nonlinear Quasi-Geostrophic Model

• Published in: Advances in Meteorology
• Main Authors: Henriette Labsch, Dörthe Handorf, Klaus Dethloff, Michael V. Kurgansky
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2015
• Subjects: Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/629429; https://doaj.org/article/2d089d6bd5c44f9d960e0da91a221286

Atmospheric low-frequency variability and circulation regime behavior are investigated in the context of a quasi-geostrophic (QG) three-level T63 model of the wintertime atmospheric circulation over the Northern Hemisphere (NH). The model generates strong interannual and decadal variability, with the domination of the annular mode of variability. It successfully reproduces a satisfactory model climatology and the most important atmospheric circulation regimes. The positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation is a robust feature of the quasi-geostrophic T63 model. The model results based on QG dynamics underlie atmospheric regime behavior in the extratropical NH and suggest that nonlinear internal processes deliver significant contribution to the atmospheric climate variability on interannual and decadal timescales.