Influences of the Kuroshio/Oyashio Extensions on Air–Sea Heat Exchanges and Storm-Track Activity as Revealed in Regional Atmospheric Model Simulations for the 2003/04 Cold Season*

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (24) ◽  
pp. 6536-6560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bunmei Taguchi ◽  
Hisashi Nakamura ◽  
Masami Nonaka ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Zone ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
Sign Reversal ◽  
Meridional Gradient ◽  
Oceanic Fronts ◽  
Storm Track Activity ◽  
Heat Exchanges ◽  
Heat And Moisture ◽  
The Kuroshio

Abstract Influences of oceanic fronts in the Kuroshio and Oyashio Extension (KOE) region on the overlying atmosphere are investigated by comparing a pair of atmospheric regional model hindcast experiments for the 2003/04 cold season, one with the observed finescale frontal structures in sea surface temperature (SST) prescribed at the model lower boundary and the other with an artificially smoothed SST distribution. The comparison reveals the locally enhanced meridional gradient of turbulent fluxes of heat and moisture and surface air temperature (SAT) across the oceanic frontal zone, which favors the storm-track development both in winter and spring. Distinct seasonal dependency is found, however, in how dominantly the storm-track activity influences the time-mean distribution of the heat and moisture supply from the ocean. In spring the mean surface sensible heat flux (SHF) is upward (downward) on the warmer (cooler) side of the subarctic SST front. This sharp cross-frontal contrast is a manifestation of intermittent heat release (cooling) induced by cool northerlies (warm southerlies) on the warmer (cooler) side of the front in association with migratory cyclones and anticyclones. The oceanic frontal zone is thus marked as both the largest variability in SHF and the cross-frontal sign reversal of the SHF skewness. The cross-frontal SHF contrasts in air–sea heat exchanges counteract poleward heat transport by those atmospheric eddies, to restore the sharp meridional gradient of SAT effectively for the recurrent development of atmospheric disturbances. Lacking this oceanic baroclinic adjustment associated with the SST front, the experiment with the smoothed SST distribution underestimates storm-track activity in the KOE region. In winter the prevailing cold, dry continental airflow associated with the Asian winter monsoon induces a large amount of heat and moisture release even from the cooler ocean to the north of the frontal zone. The persistent advective effects of the monsoonal wind weaken the SAT gradient and smear out the sign reversal of the SHF skewness, leading to weaker influences of the oceanic fronts on the atmosphere in winter than in spring.

scholarly journals Divergent Responses of Extratropical Atmospheric Circulation to Interhemispheric Dipolar SST Forcing over the Two Hemispheres in Boreal Winter

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (18) ◽  
pp. 7599-7619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaqing Xue ◽  
Cheng Sun ◽  
Jianping Li ◽  
Jiangyu Mao ◽  
Hisashi Nakamura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Southern Annular Mode ◽  
Boreal Winter ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
The North ◽  
Symmetric Pattern ◽  
Oceanic Fronts ◽  
Sst Forcing ◽  
Storm Track Activity

Global sea surface temperature (SST) evolution exhibits an antiphase variation between the two hemispheres that is referred to as the SST interhemispheric dipole (SSTID) mode. The impacts of the SSTID on extratropical atmospheric circulation in boreal winter are explored by both regression analysis and SST-forced numerical simulations. The responses of extratropical circulation to SSTID thermal forcing bear an equivalent barotropic structure. For the Southern Hemisphere (SH), positive SSTID events lead to a meridional dipolar perturbation in sea level pressure (SLP), similar in pattern to the positive southern annular mode (SAM). Although SSTID-forced SLP anomalies over the Northern Hemisphere (NH) do not exhibit a zonally symmetric pattern as is the case over the SH, they still show signs of a meridional dipole opposite to the SH over the oceans. Divergent circulation responses to SSTID forcing between the two hemispheres are suggested to be associated with contrasting storm-track variations. Positive SSTID events weaken oceanic fronts in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific, and thus lead to the decline of NH storm-track activity by decreasing atmospheric baroclinicity. In the SH, positive SSTID events correspond to the enhancement of SH transients by intensifying the Antarctic polar-frontal zone. Additionally, local baroclinic energy conversions are diagnosed to explain the SSTID-related storm-track variations over both hemispheres. Finally, an investigation of transient eddy feedback indicates that the SSTID mode modulates extratropical atmospheric circulation, primarily by regulating storm tracks and changing the corresponding eddy feedback.

Air–Sea Heat Exchanges Characteristic of a Prominent Midlatitude Oceanic Front in the South Indian Ocean as Simulated in a High-Resolution Coupled GCM

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (24) ◽  
pp. 6515-6535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masami Nonaka ◽  
Hisashi Nakamura ◽  
Bunmei Taguchi ◽  
Nobumasa Komori ◽  
Akira Kuwano-Yoshida ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Frontal Zone ◽  
Sensible Heat Flux ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Sensible Heat ◽  
South Indian Ocean ◽  
Sst Front ◽  
South Indian ◽  
Atmospheric Disturbances ◽  
Heat Exchanges

Abstract An integration of a high-resolution coupled general circulation model whose ocean component is eddy permitting and thus able to reproduce a sharp gradient in sea surface temperature (SST) is analyzed to investigate air–sea heat exchanges characteristic of the midlatitude oceanic frontal zone. The focus of this paper is placed on a prominent SST front in the south Indian Ocean, which is collocated with the core of the Southern Hemisphere storm track. Time-mean distribution of sensible heat flux is characterized by a distinct cross-frontal contrast. It is upward and downward on the warmer and cooler flanks, respectively, of the SST front, acting to maintain the sharp gradient of surface air temperature (SAT) that is important for preconditioning the environment for the recurrent development of storms and thereby anchoring the storm track. Induced by cross-frontal advection of cold (warm) air associated with migratory atmospheric disturbances, the surface flux is highly variable with intermittent enhancement of the upward (downward) flux predominantly on the warmer (cooler) flank of the front. Indeed, several intermittent events of cold (warm) air advection, whose total duration accounts for only 21% (19%) of the entire analysis period, contribute to as much as 60% (44%) of the total amount of sensible heat flux during the analysis period on the warmer (cooler) flank. This antisymmetric behavior yields the sharp cross-frontal gradient in the time-mean flux. Since the flux intensity is strongly influenced by local magnitude of the SST–SAT difference that tends to increase with the SST gradient, the concentration of the flux variance to the frontal zone and cross-frontal contrasts in the mean and skewness of the flux all become stronger during the spinup of the SST front. Synoptically, the enhanced sensible heat flux near the SST front can restore SAT toward the underlying SST effectively with a time scale of a day, to maintain a frontal SAT gradient against the relaxing effect of atmospheric disturbances. The restoration effect of the differential surface heating at the SST front, augmented by the surface latent heating concentrated on the warm side of the front, represents a key process through which the atmospheric baroclinicity and ultimately the storm track are linked to the underlying ocean.

scholarly journals On the Relationship between Synoptic Wintertime Atmospheric Variability and Path Shifts in the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio Extension

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 3177-3192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terrence M. Joyce ◽  
Young-Oh Kwon ◽  
Lisan Yu
Keyword(s):  
North Atlantic ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Kuroshio Extension ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
Atmospheric Variability ◽  
The North ◽  
The Kuroshio ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract Coherent, large-scale shifts in the paths of the Gulf Stream (GS) and the Kuroshio Extension (KE) occur on interannual to decadal time scales. Attention has usually been drawn to causes for these shifts in the overlying atmosphere, with some built-in delay of up to a few years resulting from propagation of wind-forced variability within the ocean. However, these shifts in the latitudes of separated western boundary currents can cause substantial changes in SST, which may influence the synoptic atmospheric variability with little or no time delay. Various measures of wintertime atmospheric variability in the synoptic band (2–8 days) are examined using a relatively new dataset for air–sea exchange [Objectively Analyzed Air–Sea Fluxes (OAFlux)] and subsurface temperature indices of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio path that are insulated from direct air–sea exchange, and therefore are preferable to SST. Significant changes are found in the atmospheric variability following changes in the paths of these currents, sometimes in a local fashion such as meridional shifts in measures of local storm tracks, and sometimes in nonlocal, broad regions coincident with and downstream of the oceanic forcing. Differences between the North Pacific (KE) and North Atlantic (GS) may be partly related to the more zonal orientation of the KE and the stronger SST signals of the GS, but could also be due to differences in mean storm-track characteristics over the North Pacific and North Atlantic.

scholarly journals Storm Track Response to Oceanic Eddies in Idealized Atmospheric Simulations

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 445-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Foussard ◽  
G. Lapeyre ◽  
R. Plougonven
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Heat Budget ◽  
Storm Track ◽  
Convective Heating ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
Boundary Currents ◽  
Oceanic Fronts ◽  
Budget Analysis ◽  
Poleward Shift ◽  
Oceanic Eddies

ABSTRACT Large-scale oceanic fronts, such as in western boundary currents, have been shown to play an important role in the dynamics of atmospheric storm tracks. Little is known about the influence of mesoscale oceanic eddies on the free troposphere, although their imprint on the atmospheric boundary layer is well documented. The present study investigates the response of the tropospheric storm track to the presence of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies associated with an eddying ocean. Idealized experiments are carried out in a configuration of a zonally reentrant channel representing the midlatitudes. The SST field is composed of a large-scale zonally symmetric front to which are added mesoscale eddies localized close to the front. Numerical simulations show a robust signal of a poleward shift of the storm track and of the tropospheric eddy-driven jet when oceanic eddies are taken into account. This is accompanied by more intense air–sea fluxes and convective heating above oceanic eddies. Also, a mean heating of the troposphere occurs poleward of the oceanic eddying region, within the storm track. A heat budget analysis shows that it is caused by a stronger diabatic heating within storms associated with more water advected poleward. This additional heating affects the baroclinicity of the flow, which pushes the jet and the storm track poleward.

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