The “Polar Vortex” Winter of 2013/2014

Cohen, Judah; Agel, Laurie; Barlow, Mathew; Furtado, Jason C.; Kretschmer, Marlene; Matthias, Vivien

doi:10.1029/2022jd036493

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 69 publications

(163 reference statements)

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“…The westward tilt of the eddy geopotential heights with altitude is characteristic of a baroclinic structure of the atmospheric column and is strongest in the lower levels of the troposphere. This westward tilt in the eddy geopotential height field supports the upward propagation of Rossby waves 48 , 49 that then converge over Greenland, thereby enforcing the anomalous ridge. In the section “The snow-hydrological effect as a bridge between spring snow cover variability and summer atmospheric response”, we consider the snow-hydrological effect as an explanatory mechanism behind this delayed baroclinic response.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 61%

Summer atmospheric circulation over Greenland in response to Arctic amplification and diminished spring snow cover

et al. 2023

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The exceptional atmospheric conditions that have accelerated Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss in recent decades have been repeatedly recognized as a possible dynamical response to Arctic amplification. Here, we present evidence of two potentially synergistic mechanisms linking high-latitude warming to the observed increase in Greenland blocking. Consistent with a prominent hypothesis associating Arctic amplification and persistent weather extremes, we show that the summer atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic has become wavier and link this wavier flow to more prevalent Greenland blocking. While a concomitant decline in terrestrial snow cover has likely contributed to this mechanism by further amplifying warming at high latitudes, we also show that there is a direct stationary Rossby wave response to low spring North American snow cover that enforces an anomalous anticyclone over Greenland, thus helping to anchor the ridge over Greenland in this wavier atmospheric state.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 61%

Summer atmospheric circulation over Greenland in response to Arctic amplification and diminished spring snow cover

et al. 2023

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“…Recently, several studies used the cluster analysis and the empirical orthogonal function method to identify the SPV stretching events (Cohen et al., 2021, 2022; Ding et al., 2022, 2023; Kretschmer, Cohen, et al., 2018; Kretschmer, Coumou, et al., 2018, Liang Z et al., 2023) and found that their reflective mechanism and tropospheric response closely resemble those of reflecting SSWs (Matthias & Kretschmer, 2020; Messori et al., 2022; Shen et al., 2023; Zou et al., 2024). Further efforts have been made to unveil possible causes and impacts of the SPV stretching events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic Sea Ice Loss Modulates the Surface Impact of Autumn Stratospheric Polar Vortex Stretching Events

Zou,

Zhang

2024

Geophysical Research Letters

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The cold Eurasia has been proposed to be closely linked to the weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV), however, how the Arctic sea ice modulates the surface impacts of the weak SPV is unclear. This study explores the critical modulating role of reduced Arctic sea ice in the surface cooling response to SPV stretching events in autumn. Here, through ERA5 reanalysis and Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model simulations, we show that Eurasian cold events are more likely (45%) to occur in days 30–50 after the onset of SPV stretching events under lower Barents‐Kara Seas (BKS) sea ice conditions, in contrast to under heavy BKS sea ice conditions when robust surface cooling is absent. The stratospheric and tropospheric pathways explain 46.8% and 53.2% of the total variance of Siberian coldness, respectively. The downward extension of anomalous stratospheric wave‐2 ridge to the troposphere intensifies the Arctic‐North European high, favoring the subsequent colder Siberia.

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“…The tropospheric vortex exists all year round and extends its edge to midlatitudes, while the stratospheric vortex mainly appears from late fall to early spring at 10 ~ 50 hPa over the Antarctica. The edge of the stratospheric vortex is traditionally identi ed as the peak of potential vorticity gradients along with the great temperature gradients (Cohen et al 2022; Manney et al 2022). Considering the sea-land topographic differences between the Arctic and the Antarctic, planetary waves are less active in the Antarctic, and thus the Antarctic stratospheric vortex is stronger, less distorted, and has a longer lifespan than its northern counterpart (Waugh and Polvani 2010; Rao et al 2020b; Rao and Ren 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvement of the simulated southern hemisphere stratospheric polar vortex across series of CMIPs

Feng,

Rao,

Chen

et al. 2024

Clim Dyn

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Modeling of the Antarctic stratospheric polar vortex from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (CMIP3) to phase 6 (CMIP6) is evaluated in this study. On average, a wide coverage of warm biases appears in the Antarctic stratosphere, which is greatest in the early CMIP and is gradually diminished in the two later CMIPs with the number of models producing QBO increasing. Four metrics of the Antarctic stratospheric polar vortex are assessed for three generations of CMIPs. Biases such as the overly weak strength, the overly large aspect ratio and the westward drifted vortex centroid are commonly shared across the CMIPs. While with improvements of the model resolution, model top, interactive chemistry and physical process, the intermodel spread narrows generation by generation, especially for high-top models than low-models in the simulation of vortex area. Further, Intermodel spread of Antarctic stratospheric vortex is obviously associated with the bias of austral winter sea surface temperature (SST). Speci cally, a warm SST bias in the southern oceans, including southern Indian Ocean and southern Niño 1 + 2 regions is signi cantly linked to the weaker vortex strength and the westward-displaced vortex centroid, which can be partly attributed to the modifying of the upward propagations of planetary waves in tropical and extratropical oceans. The strengthened relationships in the focused regions further con rms the importance of the SST simulation for the stratosphere vortex simulation. In general, despite biases of the polar vortex existing across CMIPs, marked progresses have been achieved for most models.

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The “Polar Vortex” Winter of 2013/2014

Abstract: There have been a surprising number of cold winters across North America compared to model projections over the past 20 years resulting in a winter cooling trend in central North America since 2009 (Cohen et al., 2020).

Cited by 8 publications

References 69 publications

Summer atmospheric circulation over Greenland in response to Arctic amplification and diminished spring snow cover

Summer atmospheric circulation over Greenland in response to Arctic amplification and diminished spring snow cover

Arctic Sea Ice Loss Modulates the Surface Impact of Autumn Stratospheric Polar Vortex Stretching Events

Improvement of the simulated southern hemisphere stratospheric polar vortex across series of CMIPs

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