Strengthening tropical influence on heat generating circulation over Australia through spring

Extreme maximum temperatures during Australian spring can have deleterious impacts on a range of sectors from health to wine grapes to planning for wildfires, but are relatively understudied compared to spring rainfall. Spring maximum temperatures in Australia have been rising over recent decades, and, as such, it is important to understand how Australian spring maximum temperatures develop. Australia’s climate is influenced by variability in the tropics and extratropics, but some of this influence impacts Australia differently from winter to summer, and, consequently, may have different impacts on Australia as spring evolves. Using linear regression analysis, this paper explores the atmospheric dynamics and remote drivers of high maximum temperatures over the individual months of spring. We find that the drivers of early spring maximum temperatures in Australia are more closely related to low-level wind changes, which in turn are more related to the Southern Annular Mode than variability in the tropics. By late spring, Australia’s maximum temperatures are proportionally more related to warming through subsidence than low-level wind changes, and more closely related to tropical variability. This increased relationship with the tropical variability is linked with the breakdown of the subtropical jet through spring and an associated change in tropically-forced Rossby wave teleconnections. However, much of the maximum temperature variability cannot be explained by either tropical or extratropical variability. An improved understanding of how the extratropics and tropics projects onto the mechanisms that drive high maximum temperatures through spring may lead to improved sub-seasonal prediction of high temperatures in the future.

Extratropical Southern Hemisphere Synchronous Pressure Variability in the Early Twentieth Century

Because continuous meteorological observations across Antarctica did not start until the middle of the twentieth century, little is known about the full spatial pattern of pressure variability across the extratropical Southern Hemisphere (SH) in the early twentieth century, defined here as the period from 1905 to 1956. To fill this gap, this study analyzes pressure observations across the SH in conjunction with seasonal pressure reconstructions across Antarctica, which are based on observed station-to-station statistical relationships between pressure over Antarctica and the southern midlatitudes. Using this newly generated dataset, it is found that the early twentieth century is characterized by synchronous but opposite-signed pressure relationships between Antarctica and the SH midlatitudes, especially in austral summer and autumn. The synchronous pressure relationships are consistent with the southern annular mode, extending its well-known influence on SH extratropical pressure since 1957 into the early twentieth century. Apart from connections with the southern annular mode, regional and shorter-duration pressure trends are found to be associated with influences from tropical variability and potentially the zonal wavenumber 3 pattern. Although the reduced network of SH observations and Antarctic reconstruction captures the southern annular mode in the early twentieth century, reanalysis products show varying skill in reproducing trends and variability, especially over the oceans and high southern latitudes prior to 1957, which stresses the importance of continual efforts of historical data rescue in data-sparse regions to improve their quality.

Extratropical Southern Hemisphere Synchronous Pressure Variability in the Early 20th Century

Because continuous meteorological observations across Antarctica did not start until the middle of the 20th century, little is known about the full spatial pattern of pressure variability across the extratropical Southern Hemisphere (SH) in the early 20th century, defined here as the period from 1905-1956. To fill this gap, this study analyzes pressure observations across the SH in conjunction with seasonal pressure reconstructions across Antarctica, which are based on observed station-to-station statistical relationships between pressure over Antarctica and the southern midlatitudes. Using this newly generated dataset, it is found that the early 20th century is characterized by synchronous, but opposite signed pressure relationships between Antarctica and the SH midlatitudes, especially in austral summer and autumn. The synchronous pressure relationships are consistent with the Southern Annular Mode, extending its well-known influence on SH extratropical pressure since 1957 into the early 20th century. Apart from connections with the Southern Annular Mode, regional and shorter-duration pressure trends are found to be associated with influences from tropical variability and potentially the zonal wavenumber three pattern. Although the reduced network of SH observations and Antarctic reconstruction capture the Southern Annular Mode in the early 20th century, reanalyses products show varying skill in reproducing trends and variability, especially over the oceans and high southern latitudes prior to 1957, which stresses the importance of continual efforts of historical data rescue in data sparse regions to improve their quality.

On the understanding of the trade-wind cumuli daily cycle: the role of convective mixing and mesoscale organization of convection

<p>Oceanic shallow convective clouds, which prevail in the trade-wind regions, have long been of great interest, because they strongly impact climate on a wide range of scales and they are critical in the estimation of the magnitude and pace of global warming. But surprisingly, the most fundamental mode of tropical variability, that is the daily cycle, has received very little attention for this cloud category, so that our knowledge of the diurnal processes in this oceanic shallow cumulus regime and their influence on climate at broader scales remains extremely limited. We recently relaunched the exploration of this topic. New investigating tools have been used, including large-eddy simulations run over large domains in realistic configurations and in-situ observations from the Barbados Cloud Observatory, which have helped study this daily cycle in the North Atlantic trade-wind region with a lot more details than was possible 40 years ago when it was first documented. Important features of this daily cycle have been found, which can have far reaching implications for climate change studies. Our hypothesis is that understanding the processes that control trade-wind cumuli on the diurnal timescale will benefit to our understanding of the mechanisms that are involved in the tropical marine low-level cloud feedbacks. In this regard, the wealth of observational data that will be collected during the EUREC4A campaign is unprecedented and offers a tremendous opportunity to enrich the characterisation and understanding of the mechanisms of the trade-wind daily cycle. Preliminary results will be discussed with a focus on the role of the shallow convective mixing and mesoscale organization in the daily cycle of trade-wind cumuli.</p>

Robustness of Relations between the MJO and U.S. Tornado Occurrence

The Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) is the leading mode of tropical variability on subseasonal time scales and has predictable impacts in the extratropics. Whether or not the MJO has a discernible influence on U.S. tornado occurrence has important implications for the feasibility of extended-range forecasting of tornado activity. Interpretation and comparison of previous studies is difficult because of differing data periods, methods, and tornado activity metrics. Here, a previously described modulation of the frequency of violent tornado outbreaks (days with six or more tornadoes reported rated EF2 or greater) by the MJO is shown to be fairly robust to the addition or removal of years to the analysis period and to changes in the number of tornadoes used to define outbreak days, but is less robust to the choice of MJO index. Earlier findings of a statistically significant MJO signal in the frequency of days with at least one tornado report are shown to be incorrect. The reduction of the frequency of days with tornadoes rated EF1 and greater when MJO convection is present in the Maritime Continent and western Pacific is statistically significant in April and robust across varying thresholds of reliably reported tornado numbers and MJO indices.

The seasonal relationship between intraseasonal tropical variability and ENSO in CMIP5

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is tightly linked to the intraseasonal tropical variability (ITV) that contributes to energise the deterministic ocean dynamics during the development of El Niño. Here, the relationship between ITV and ENSO is assessed based on models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) phase 5 (CMIP5) taking into account the so-called diversity of ENSO, that is, the existence of two types of events (central Pacific versus eastern Pacific El Niño). As a first step, the models' skill in simulating ENSO diversity is assessed. The characteristics of the ITV are then documented revealing a large dispersion within an ensemble of 16 models. A total of 11 models exhibit some skill in simulating the key aspects of the ITV for ENSO: the total variance along the Equator, the seasonal cycle and the characteristics of the propagation along the Equator of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) and the convectively coupled equatorial Rossby (ER) waves. Five models that account realistically for both the two types of El Niño events and ITV characteristics are used for the further analysis of seasonal ITV ∕ ENSO relationship. The results indicate a large dispersion among the models and an overall limited skill in accounting for the observed seasonal ITV ∕ ENSO relationship. Implications of our results are discussed in light of recent studies on the forcing mechanism of ENSO diversity.