Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades
The wintertime Arctic stratospheric polar vortex has weakened over the past three decades, and consequently cold surface air from high latitudes is now more likely to move into the middle latitudes. However, it is not known if the location of the polar vortex has also experienced a persistent change...
Published in: | Nature Climate Change |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108108/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108108/1/Zhang_etal_NCC_Final_Unformatted.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3136 |
id |
ftleedsuniv:oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:108108 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftleedsuniv:oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:108108 2023-05-15T14:25:19+02:00 Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades Zhang, J Tian, W Chipperfield, MP Xie, F Huang, J 2016-12 text https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108108/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108108/1/Zhang_etal_NCC_Final_Unformatted.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3136 en eng Nature Publishing Group https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108108/1/Zhang_etal_NCC_Final_Unformatted.pdf Zhang, J, Tian, W, Chipperfield, MP orcid.org/0000-0002-6803-4149 et al. (2 more authors) (2016) Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades. Nature Climate Change, 6 (12). pp. 1094-1099. ISSN 1758-678X Article NonPeerReviewed 2016 ftleedsuniv https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3136 2023-01-30T21:48:47Z The wintertime Arctic stratospheric polar vortex has weakened over the past three decades, and consequently cold surface air from high latitudes is now more likely to move into the middle latitudes. However, it is not known if the location of the polar vortex has also experienced a persistent change in response to Arctic climate change and whether any changes in the vortex position have implications for the climate system. Here, through the analysis of various data sets and model simulations, we show that the Arctic polar vortex shifted persistently towards the Eurasian continent and away from North America in February over the past three decades. This shift is found to be closely related to the enhanced zonal wavenumber-1 waves in response to Arctic sea-ice loss, particularly over the Barents–Kara seas (BKS). Increased snow cover over the Eurasian continent may also have contributed to the shift. Our analysis reveals that the vortex shift induces cooling over some parts of the Eurasian continent and North America which partly offsets the tropospheric climate warming there in the past three decades. The potential vortex shift in response to persistent sea-ice loss in the future, and its associated climatic impact, deserve attention to better constrain future climate changes. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Climate change Sea ice White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) Arctic Nature Climate Change 6 12 1094 1099 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) |
op_collection_id |
ftleedsuniv |
language |
English |
description |
The wintertime Arctic stratospheric polar vortex has weakened over the past three decades, and consequently cold surface air from high latitudes is now more likely to move into the middle latitudes. However, it is not known if the location of the polar vortex has also experienced a persistent change in response to Arctic climate change and whether any changes in the vortex position have implications for the climate system. Here, through the analysis of various data sets and model simulations, we show that the Arctic polar vortex shifted persistently towards the Eurasian continent and away from North America in February over the past three decades. This shift is found to be closely related to the enhanced zonal wavenumber-1 waves in response to Arctic sea-ice loss, particularly over the Barents–Kara seas (BKS). Increased snow cover over the Eurasian continent may also have contributed to the shift. Our analysis reveals that the vortex shift induces cooling over some parts of the Eurasian continent and North America which partly offsets the tropospheric climate warming there in the past three decades. The potential vortex shift in response to persistent sea-ice loss in the future, and its associated climatic impact, deserve attention to better constrain future climate changes. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Zhang, J Tian, W Chipperfield, MP Xie, F Huang, J |
spellingShingle |
Zhang, J Tian, W Chipperfield, MP Xie, F Huang, J Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades |
author_facet |
Zhang, J Tian, W Chipperfield, MP Xie, F Huang, J |
author_sort |
Zhang, J |
title |
Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades |
title_short |
Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades |
title_full |
Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades |
title_fullStr |
Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades |
title_full_unstemmed |
Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades |
title_sort |
persistent shift of the arctic polar vortex towards the eurasian continent in recent decades |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108108/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108108/1/Zhang_etal_NCC_Final_Unformatted.pdf https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3136 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Climate change Sea ice |
op_relation |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108108/1/Zhang_etal_NCC_Final_Unformatted.pdf Zhang, J, Tian, W, Chipperfield, MP orcid.org/0000-0002-6803-4149 et al. (2 more authors) (2016) Persistent shift of the Arctic polar vortex towards the Eurasian continent in recent decades. Nature Climate Change, 6 (12). pp. 1094-1099. ISSN 1758-678X |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3136 |
container_title |
Nature Climate Change |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
1094 |
op_container_end_page |
1099 |
_version_ |
1766297740187271168 |