Estimating proportion of polar lows resolved by atmospheric reanalyses using different data sets

• Published in: Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk Seriya Geograficheskaya
• Main Authors: J. E. Smirnova, P. A. Golubkin, Ю. Е. Смирнова, П. А. Голубкин
• Other Authors: RFBR, РФФИ
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Russian
• Published: Государственный научный центр Российской Федерации Арктический и антарктический научно-исследовательский институт 2017
• Subjects: скорость приводного ветра; atmospheric reanalyses; Arctic System Reanalysis; ERA-Interim; relative vorticity; wind speed; атмосферный реанализ; ASR; относительная завихренность; Arctic
• Online Access: https://www.aaresearch.science/jour/article/view/104; https://doi.org/10.30758/0555-2648-2017-0-1-97-108

For the first time representation of polar lows in the Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR), which was created specifically for the Arctic region, is estimated and compared to that of ERA-Interim. As obtained, ERA-Interim and ASR, correspondingly, resolve 48 and 89 % of cases from a widely used polar low list. The fraction of polar lows resolved by ASR is therefore considerably higher than was reported for other reanalyses in previous studies. ASR sea surface wind speed data were shown to be in good agreement with satellite-derived estimates. This is in contrast to ERA-Interim which significantly underestimates wind speed in polar low situations. As found, usage of an alternative polar low list leads to notable changes in the resulting estimates. As estimated for a more complete polar low list, polar low representation in ERA-Interim and ASR decreased to 26 and 66 %, correspondingly. Atmospheric static stability criterion was found to influence resulting percentages as well.