The development of a polar low in the Bear Island region between the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea is studied. The polar low develops when an upper‐level cold core vortex from the northeast is advected across the ice edge and the region of extreme sea surface temperature gradients in the Svalbard–Bear Island region. Strong convection is believed to play an important role in the transformation of the upper‐level vortex into a polar low with greatest intensity near the surface.
SUMMARYIt is suggested that the polar low is basica!ly a thermal inslability phenomenon much akin to a small tropical cyclone. A quasi-geostrophic model is employed in order to find small-scale unstable CISK-forced disturbances in a barotropic basic flow with a vertical structure similar to that actually observed during a polar air outbreak. Case studies of some polar low developments in some ways support a convective hypothesis according to which the polar low is driven by latent heat released in convection clouds.
It is suggested that the polar low is basically a thermal instability phenomenon much akin to a small tropical cyclone. A quasi‐geostrophic model is employed in order to find small‐scale unstable CISK‐forced disturbances in a barotropic basic flow with a vertical structure similar to that actually observed during a polar air outbreak. Case studies of some polar low developments in some ways support a convective hypothesis according to which the polar low is driven by latent heat released in convection clouds.
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