Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model
Synoptic atmospheric eddies are affected by lower tropospheric air-temperature gradients and by turbulent heat fluxes from the surface. In this study we examine how ocean fronts affect these quantities and hence the storm tracks. We focus on two midlatitude regions where ocean fronts lie close to th...
Published in: | Climate Dynamics |
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Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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Online Access: | http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-020-824 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1980-9 |
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_14230 2023-09-05T13:21:51+02:00 Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model Small, R. (author) Tomas, Robert (author) Bryan, Frank (author) 2014-08-01 application/pdf http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-020-824 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1980-9 en eng Springer Climate Dynamics http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-020-824 doi:10.1007/s00382-013-1980-9 ark:/85065/d7d79cc5 Copyright 2014 Springer. Text article 2014 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1980-9 2023-08-14T18:41:24Z Synoptic atmospheric eddies are affected by lower tropospheric air-temperature gradients and by turbulent heat fluxes from the surface. In this study we examine how ocean fronts affect these quantities and hence the storm tracks. We focus on two midlatitude regions where ocean fronts lie close to the storm tracks: the north-west Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. An atmospheric climate model of reasonably high resolution (~50 km) is applied in a climate-length (60 year) simulation in order to obtain stable statistics. Simulations with frontal structure in the sea surface temperature (SST) in one of the regions are compared against simulations with globally smoothed SST. We show that in both regions the ocean fronts have a strong influence on the transient eddy heat and moisture fluxes, not just in the boundary layer, but also in the free troposphere. Local differences in these quantities between the simulations reach 20–40 % of the maximum values in the simulation with smoothed SST. Averaged over the entire region of the storm track over the ocean the corresponding differences are 10–20 %. The effect on the transient eddy meridional wind variance is strong in the boundary layer but relatively weak above that. The potential mechanisms by which the ocean fronts influence the storm tracks are discussed, and our results are compared against previous studies with regional models, Aquaplanet models, and coarse resolution coupled models. DE-SC0006743 Article in Journal/Newspaper North West Atlantic Southern Ocean OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Southern Ocean Climate Dynamics 43 3-4 805 828 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
Synoptic atmospheric eddies are affected by lower tropospheric air-temperature gradients and by turbulent heat fluxes from the surface. In this study we examine how ocean fronts affect these quantities and hence the storm tracks. We focus on two midlatitude regions where ocean fronts lie close to the storm tracks: the north-west Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. An atmospheric climate model of reasonably high resolution (~50 km) is applied in a climate-length (60 year) simulation in order to obtain stable statistics. Simulations with frontal structure in the sea surface temperature (SST) in one of the regions are compared against simulations with globally smoothed SST. We show that in both regions the ocean fronts have a strong influence on the transient eddy heat and moisture fluxes, not just in the boundary layer, but also in the free troposphere. Local differences in these quantities between the simulations reach 20–40 % of the maximum values in the simulation with smoothed SST. Averaged over the entire region of the storm track over the ocean the corresponding differences are 10–20 %. The effect on the transient eddy meridional wind variance is strong in the boundary layer but relatively weak above that. The potential mechanisms by which the ocean fronts influence the storm tracks are discussed, and our results are compared against previous studies with regional models, Aquaplanet models, and coarse resolution coupled models. DE-SC0006743 |
author2 |
Small, R. (author) Tomas, Robert (author) Bryan, Frank (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model |
spellingShingle |
Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model |
title_short |
Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model |
title_full |
Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model |
title_fullStr |
Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model |
title_full_unstemmed |
Storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model |
title_sort |
storm track response to ocean fronts in a global high-resolution climate model |
publisher |
Springer |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-020-824 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1980-9 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
North West Atlantic Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
North West Atlantic Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
Climate Dynamics http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-020-824 doi:10.1007/s00382-013-1980-9 ark:/85065/d7d79cc5 |
op_rights |
Copyright 2014 Springer. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1980-9 |
container_title |
Climate Dynamics |
container_volume |
43 |
container_issue |
3-4 |
container_start_page |
805 |
op_container_end_page |
828 |
_version_ |
1776202413200375808 |