Summer Deep Depressions Increase Over the Eastern North Atlantic

Abstract Mid‐tropospheric deep depressions in summer over the North Atlantic are shown to have strongly increased in the eastern and strongly decreased in the western North Atlantic region. This evolution is linked to a change in baroclinicity in the west of the North Atlantic ocean and over the Nor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Fabio D'Andrea, Jean‐Philippe Duvel, Gwendal Rivière, Robert Vautard, Christophe Cassou, Julien Cattiaux, Dim Coumou, Davide Faranda, Tamara Happé, Aglaé Jézéquel, Aurelien Ribes, Pascal Yiou
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024
Subjects:
Geophysics. Cosmic physics
QC801-809
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104435
https://doaj.org/article/cf9ba5c01c094e628df271865002fda9
Description
Summary:Abstract Mid‐tropospheric deep depressions in summer over the North Atlantic are shown to have strongly increased in the eastern and strongly decreased in the western North Atlantic region. This evolution is linked to a change in baroclinicity in the west of the North Atlantic ocean and over the North American coast, likely due to the increased surface temperature there. Deep depressions in the Eastern North Atlantic are linked to a temperature pattern typical of extreme heat events in the region. The same analysis is applied to a sample of CMIP6 model outputs, and no such trends are found. This study suggests a link between the observed increase of summer extreme heat events in the region and the increase of the number of Atlantic depressions. The failure of CMIP6 models to reproduce these events can consequently also reside in an incorrect reproduction of this specific feature of midlatitude atmospheric dynamics.

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