Examining Atmospheric River Life Cycles in East Antarctica
During atmospheric river (AR) landfalls on the Antarctic ice sheet, the high waviness of the circumpolar polar jet stream allows for subtropical air masses to be advected toward the Antarctic coastline. These rare but high-impact AR events are highly consequential for the Antarctic mass balance; yet...
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ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/670426 2024-05-19T07:32:10+00:00 Examining Atmospheric River Life Cycles in East Antarctica Wille, Jonathan D. Pohl, Benjamin Favier, Vincent Winters, Andrew C. Baiman, Rebecca Cavallo, Steven M. Leroy-Dos Santos, Christophe Clem, Kyle Udy, Danielle G. Vance, Tessa R. Gorodetskaya, Irina Codron, Francis Berchet, Antoine 2024-04-28 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/670426 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000670426 en eng Wiley info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1029/2023JD039970 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/001204839100001 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/670426 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000670426 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129 (8) atmospheric rivers Antarctica atmospheric dynamics atmospheric blocking diabatic processes info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2024 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/67042610.3929/ethz-b-00067042610.1029/2023JD039970 2024-04-30T23:34:11Z During atmospheric river (AR) landfalls on the Antarctic ice sheet, the high waviness of the circumpolar polar jet stream allows for subtropical air masses to be advected toward the Antarctic coastline. These rare but high-impact AR events are highly consequential for the Antarctic mass balance; yet little is known about the various atmospheric dynamical components determining their life cycle. By using an AR detection algorithm to retrieve AR landfalls at Dumont d'Urville and non-AR analogs based on 700 hPa geopotential height, we examined what makes AR landfalls unique and studied the complete life cycle of ARs reaching Dumont d'Urville. ARs form in the mid-latitudes/subtropics in areas of high surface evaporation, likely in response to tropical deep convection anomalies. These convection anomalies likely lead to Rossby wave trains that help amplify the upper-tropospheric flow pattern. As the AR approaches Antarctica, condensation of isentropically lifted moisture causes latent heat release that-in conjunction with poleward warm air advection-induces geopotential height rises and anticyclonic upper-level potential vorticity tendencies downstream. As evidenced by a blocking index, these tendencies lead to enhanced ridging/blocking that persist beyond the AR landfall time, sustaining warm air advection onto the ice sheet. Finally, we demonstrate a connection between tropopause polar vortices and mid-latitude cyclogenesis in an AR case study. Overall, the non-AR analogs reveal that the amplified jet pattern observed during AR landfalls is a result of enhanced poleward moisture transport and associated diabatic heating which is likely impossible to replicate without strong moisture transport. ISSN:0148-0227 ISSN:2169-897X Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet ETH Zürich Research Collection |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ETH Zürich Research Collection |
op_collection_id |
ftethz |
language |
English |
topic |
atmospheric rivers Antarctica atmospheric dynamics atmospheric blocking diabatic processes |
spellingShingle |
atmospheric rivers Antarctica atmospheric dynamics atmospheric blocking diabatic processes Wille, Jonathan D. Pohl, Benjamin Favier, Vincent Winters, Andrew C. Baiman, Rebecca Cavallo, Steven M. Leroy-Dos Santos, Christophe Clem, Kyle Udy, Danielle G. Vance, Tessa R. Gorodetskaya, Irina Codron, Francis Berchet, Antoine Examining Atmospheric River Life Cycles in East Antarctica |
topic_facet |
atmospheric rivers Antarctica atmospheric dynamics atmospheric blocking diabatic processes |
description |
During atmospheric river (AR) landfalls on the Antarctic ice sheet, the high waviness of the circumpolar polar jet stream allows for subtropical air masses to be advected toward the Antarctic coastline. These rare but high-impact AR events are highly consequential for the Antarctic mass balance; yet little is known about the various atmospheric dynamical components determining their life cycle. By using an AR detection algorithm to retrieve AR landfalls at Dumont d'Urville and non-AR analogs based on 700 hPa geopotential height, we examined what makes AR landfalls unique and studied the complete life cycle of ARs reaching Dumont d'Urville. ARs form in the mid-latitudes/subtropics in areas of high surface evaporation, likely in response to tropical deep convection anomalies. These convection anomalies likely lead to Rossby wave trains that help amplify the upper-tropospheric flow pattern. As the AR approaches Antarctica, condensation of isentropically lifted moisture causes latent heat release that-in conjunction with poleward warm air advection-induces geopotential height rises and anticyclonic upper-level potential vorticity tendencies downstream. As evidenced by a blocking index, these tendencies lead to enhanced ridging/blocking that persist beyond the AR landfall time, sustaining warm air advection onto the ice sheet. Finally, we demonstrate a connection between tropopause polar vortices and mid-latitude cyclogenesis in an AR case study. Overall, the non-AR analogs reveal that the amplified jet pattern observed during AR landfalls is a result of enhanced poleward moisture transport and associated diabatic heating which is likely impossible to replicate without strong moisture transport. ISSN:0148-0227 ISSN:2169-897X |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wille, Jonathan D. Pohl, Benjamin Favier, Vincent Winters, Andrew C. Baiman, Rebecca Cavallo, Steven M. Leroy-Dos Santos, Christophe Clem, Kyle Udy, Danielle G. Vance, Tessa R. Gorodetskaya, Irina Codron, Francis Berchet, Antoine |
author_facet |
Wille, Jonathan D. Pohl, Benjamin Favier, Vincent Winters, Andrew C. Baiman, Rebecca Cavallo, Steven M. Leroy-Dos Santos, Christophe Clem, Kyle Udy, Danielle G. Vance, Tessa R. Gorodetskaya, Irina Codron, Francis Berchet, Antoine |
author_sort |
Wille, Jonathan D. |
title |
Examining Atmospheric River Life Cycles in East Antarctica |
title_short |
Examining Atmospheric River Life Cycles in East Antarctica |
title_full |
Examining Atmospheric River Life Cycles in East Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Examining Atmospheric River Life Cycles in East Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Examining Atmospheric River Life Cycles in East Antarctica |
title_sort |
examining atmospheric river life cycles in east antarctica |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/670426 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000670426 |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129 (8) |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1029/2023JD039970 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/001204839100001 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/670426 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000670426 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11850/67042610.3929/ethz-b-00067042610.1029/2023JD039970 |
_version_ |
1799470127750578176 |