The switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective
International audience Atmospheric mid-latitude circulation is dominated by a zonal, westerly flow. Such a flow is generally symmetric, but it can be occasionally broken up by blocking anticyclones. The subsequent asymmetric flow can persist for several days. In this paper, we apply new mathematical...
Published in: | Climate Dynamics |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2015
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648v2/file/Farandaetal_Blocking_rev1409.pdf https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:10670/1.xgz3aw |
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record_format |
openpolar |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Unknown |
op_collection_id |
fttriple |
language |
English |
topic |
Blocking index Mid-latitude circulation Extremal index geo envir |
spellingShingle |
Blocking index Mid-latitude circulation Extremal index geo envir Faranda, Davide Masato, Giacomo Moloney, Nicholas Sato, Yuzuru Daviaud, François Dubrulle, Bérengère Yiou, Pascal The switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective |
topic_facet |
Blocking index Mid-latitude circulation Extremal index geo envir |
description |
International audience Atmospheric mid-latitude circulation is dominated by a zonal, westerly flow. Such a flow is generally symmetric, but it can be occasionally broken up by blocking anticyclones. The subsequent asymmetric flow can persist for several days. In this paper, we apply new mathematical tools based on the computation of an extremal index in order to reexamine the dynamical mechanisms responsible for the transitions between zonal and blocked flows. We discard the claim that mid-latitude circulation features two distinct stable equilibria or chaotic regimes, in favor of a simpler mechanism that is well understood in dynamical systems theory: we identify the blocked flow as an unstable fixed point (or saddle point) of a single basin chaotic attractor, dominated by the westerlies regime. We also analyze the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation atmospheric indices, whosebehavior is often associated with the transition between the two circulation regimes, and investigate analogies and differences with the bidimensional blocking indices. We find that the Arctic Oscillation index, which can be thought as a proxy for a hemispheric average of the Tibaldi-Molteni blocking index, keeps track of the presence of unstable fixed points. On the other hand, the North Atlantic Oscillation, representative only of local properties of the North Atlantic blocking dynamics, does not show any trace of the presence of unstable fixed points of the dynamics. |
author2 |
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) Extrèmes : Statistiques, Impacts et Régionalisation (ESTIMR) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) Department of Meteorology Reading University of Reading (UOR) London Mathematical Laboratory Hokkaido University Sapporo, Japan Service de physique de l'état condensé (SPEC - UMR3680) Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) European Project: 338965,EC:FP7:ERC,ERC-2013-ADG,A2C2(2014) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Faranda, Davide Masato, Giacomo Moloney, Nicholas Sato, Yuzuru Daviaud, François Dubrulle, Bérengère Yiou, Pascal |
author_facet |
Faranda, Davide Masato, Giacomo Moloney, Nicholas Sato, Yuzuru Daviaud, François Dubrulle, Bérengère Yiou, Pascal |
author_sort |
Faranda, Davide |
title |
The switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective |
title_short |
The switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective |
title_full |
The switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective |
title_fullStr |
The switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective |
title_full_unstemmed |
The switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective |
title_sort |
switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648v2/file/Farandaetal_Blocking_rev1409.pdf https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(73.483,73.483,-53.017,-53.017) |
geographic |
Arctic Saddle Point |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Saddle Point |
genre |
Arctic North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
genre_facet |
Arctic North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation |
op_source |
Hyper Article en Ligne - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société ISSN: 0930-7575 EISSN: 1432-0894 Climate Dynamics Climate Dynamics, Springer Verlag, 2015, 2015 (6), pp.2921. ⟨10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6⟩ |
op_relation |
hal-01136648 doi:10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6 10670/1.xgz3aw https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648v2/file/Farandaetal_Blocking_rev1409.pdf https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648 |
op_rights |
other |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6 |
container_title |
Climate Dynamics |
container_volume |
47 |
container_issue |
5-6 |
container_start_page |
1587 |
op_container_end_page |
1599 |
_version_ |
1766331343594061824 |
spelling |
fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:10670/1.xgz3aw 2023-05-15T14:59:13+02:00 The switching between zonal and blocked mid-latitude atmospheric circulation: a dynamical system perspective Faranda, Davide Masato, Giacomo Moloney, Nicholas Sato, Yuzuru Daviaud, François Dubrulle, Bérengère Yiou, Pascal Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) Extrèmes : Statistiques, Impacts et Régionalisation (ESTIMR) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) Department of Meteorology Reading University of Reading (UOR) London Mathematical Laboratory Hokkaido University Sapporo, Japan Service de physique de l'état condensé (SPEC - UMR3680) Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) European Project: 338965,EC:FP7:ERC,ERC-2013-ADG,A2C2(2014) 2015-11-01 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648v2/file/Farandaetal_Blocking_rev1409.pdf https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648 en eng HAL CCSD Springer Verlag hal-01136648 doi:10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6 10670/1.xgz3aw https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648v2/file/Farandaetal_Blocking_rev1409.pdf https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01136648 other Hyper Article en Ligne - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société ISSN: 0930-7575 EISSN: 1432-0894 Climate Dynamics Climate Dynamics, Springer Verlag, 2015, 2015 (6), pp.2921. ⟨10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6⟩ Blocking index Mid-latitude circulation Extremal index geo envir Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2015 fttriple https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2921-6 2023-01-22T16:57:33Z International audience Atmospheric mid-latitude circulation is dominated by a zonal, westerly flow. Such a flow is generally symmetric, but it can be occasionally broken up by blocking anticyclones. The subsequent asymmetric flow can persist for several days. In this paper, we apply new mathematical tools based on the computation of an extremal index in order to reexamine the dynamical mechanisms responsible for the transitions between zonal and blocked flows. We discard the claim that mid-latitude circulation features two distinct stable equilibria or chaotic regimes, in favor of a simpler mechanism that is well understood in dynamical systems theory: we identify the blocked flow as an unstable fixed point (or saddle point) of a single basin chaotic attractor, dominated by the westerlies regime. We also analyze the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation atmospheric indices, whosebehavior is often associated with the transition between the two circulation regimes, and investigate analogies and differences with the bidimensional blocking indices. We find that the Arctic Oscillation index, which can be thought as a proxy for a hemispheric average of the Tibaldi-Molteni blocking index, keeps track of the presence of unstable fixed points. On the other hand, the North Atlantic Oscillation, representative only of local properties of the North Atlantic blocking dynamics, does not show any trace of the presence of unstable fixed points of the dynamics. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic North Atlantic North Atlantic oscillation Unknown Arctic Saddle Point ENVELOPE(73.483,73.483,-53.017,-53.017) Climate Dynamics 47 5-6 1587 1599 |