Northern Hemisphere Airstream Regions

Wendland, Wayne M.; Bryson, Reid A.

doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1981)109<0255:nhar>2.0.co;2

Cited by 58 publications

(29 citation statements)

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“…The gradient along the eastern coast is partially the result of the north-south migration of the Bermuda high during the summer (Harmon 1987). The MT frequency pattern along the western Gulf of Mexico in the summer is associated with the interaction of a surface pressure gradient between the Bermuda high and the thermally-induced low pressure over the southwestern U.S. As a result, the mean surface movement of MT is northward from the Gulf of Mexico (Wendland & Bryson 1981). The strong gradient in MT across western Texas can be attributed to mid-level subsidence over the central states which acts to inhibit convection during MT intrusions, and to dilute the northward flowing MT with drier, mid-level air (Corcoran 1982).…”

Section: Summer Air Mass Frequenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative analysis of summer air masses in the eastern United States and an application to human mortality

Js¹,

Ls²

1996

Clim. Res.

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A recently developed continental-scale air mass-based classification is used to identify the spatial occurrences of 6 air masses (dry polar, dry temperate, dry tropical, moist polar, moist temperate, and moist tropical) in the eastern United States for summer from 1961 to 1990. This procedure, the spatial synoptic classification (SSC), is based on 'seed' day identification of synoptic events and discriminant analysis to group days together which are within the same air mass type. Thus, the evaluation of the frequency and modification of air masses across a large region is possible. Using the SSC, maps of air mass frequencies and afternoon temperatures and dew points are developed. Rates of modification are determined as each air mass traverses the region. As an example of the environmental applicability of the SSC, the impact of climate upon human mortality is analyzed at 3 climatically different locations (New Orleans, LA; Memphis, TN; and Chicago, IL). Results show how the day-to-day mortality fluctuations are sensitive to air mass type. A particular air mass which is associated with distinctly high mortality is identified for Memphis and Chicago; no such air mass is apparent for New Orleans, where the weather/mortality signal is very weak.

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Section: Summer Air Mass Frequenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative analysis of summer air masses in the eastern United States and an application to human mortality

Js¹,

Ls²

1996

Clim. Res.

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“…The station comes under the influence of major air masses originating from the northwest and -east and southwest and -east ofLas Cruces. The relative influence of any given air mass on Las Cruces' weather is determined by the positions of the polar front and subtropical jet streams in relation to the north-south Rocky Mountain axis (1,20,21). The jet streams may run tangentially to the mountain axis (polar front jet) or may obliquely transect the axis near Las Cruces (polar and subtropical jets), thus producing the four separate air mass gradients.…”

Section: April I986mentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Resolution Climatic Analysis and Southwest Biogeography

Neilson

1986

Science

283

188

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Meteorologists and climatologists have produced significant new data on the fluid dynamics of the atmosphere, thus allowing biologists to examine more closely the cause-effect relation between the large-scale structure of the atmosphere and the dominant patterns of global biogeography. The inability to characterize the high-frequency variability of the weather has constrained such efforts. A method that allows year-to-year patterns of weather variability to be characterized in the contexts of global warming and cooling trends is applied in a combined analysis of long-term monthly weather records and data from an ecological monitoring project in southern New Mexico. The analysis suggests a cause-effect hypothesis of recent desertification in the North American Southwest. The links between the atmosphere and the biosphere are based on the fundamentally different responses to specific weather regimes of semidesert grasses with a C(4) photosynthetic pathway and desert shrubs with a C(3) photosynthetic pathway. The hypothesis appears to be of sufficient generality to explain the complex, but well-documented, floristic changes that have occurred in the same region since the last glacial maximum.

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“…This was true in all seasons, although the trajectories were longer in winter. Wendland and Bryson [1981] found the Arctic was dominated by air masses originating in the arctic for most of the year, but air masses originating in the Yukon and Greenland were also present. Changes in the relative importance of these sources could account for the differences in local and long-distance components of these pollen assemblages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial patterns of pollen deposition in arctic snow

Bourgeois¹,

Gajewski²,

Koerner³

2001

J. Geophys. Res.

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Abstract. The pollen content of 77 snow samples, collected at 41 sites in the Canadian Arctic, the adjacent Arctic Ocean and Greenland can be used to identify source regions that produced the assemblages. The major vegetation zones of northern Canada produce distinctive pollen assemblages, and principal components analysis (PCA) indicate that these assemblages are retained even in snow on the sea ice surface. It is shown that pollen percentages and concentrations are related to the density of the regional vegetation and to the distance to the source of more productive regions. Because the pollen grains may be transported for great distances (even to the central regions of the Arctic Ocean), they may be used to indicate the source of that pollen and the trajectory of the air masses that carried and deposited them. Pine is particularly valuable in this sense because it has longer trajectories than other tree pollen. For example, there are indications of "over-thepole" transport of pollen from higher pine pollen concentrations at the North Pole than on northern Ellesmere Island. Pollen concentrations of certain taxa change significantly at -75øN, north of which the concentrations become lower, thereby suggesting that there is a climatic boundary at that latitude. Therefore it would appear that studies of the concentration of pollen in snow have the potential for determining past and present characteristics of atmospheric circulation and also for helping in the development and interpretation of paleoenvironmental records in regions without vegetation, such as ice caps.

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Northern Hemisphere Airstream Regions

Cited by 58 publications

References 0 publications

Quantitative analysis of summer air masses in the eastern United States and an application to human mortality

Quantitative analysis of summer air masses in the eastern United States and an application to human mortality

High-Resolution Climatic Analysis and Southwest Biogeography

Spatial patterns of pollen deposition in arctic snow

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