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The role of atmospheric blockings in regulating Arctic warming
Stockholm University, Faculty of Science, Department of Meteorology . Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University.
(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Using ERA5 reanalysis we find positive trends in poleward transport of moisture and heat during 1979~2018 over the winter Barents Sea and summer East Siberian Sea and investigate the role of large-scale circulation, in particular atmospheric high-pressure blocking, to understand the increasing poleward transports. It is found that the blocking occurrence (blocking days), quantified by a blocking track algorithm, can explain these trends. Blocking occurrence over the Barents Sea increased by ~3 day decade-1 in the last 40 winters, inducing increasingly stronger poleward transport of moisture and heat, by 3 kg m-1 s-1 decade-1 and 1.2                    108 W m-1 decade-1, respectively, leading to surface warming and sea ice melt. An increasing trend in the blocking persistence is also found over the same region, by 8 hour decade-1. Meanwhile, more frequently occurring blockings over the Beaufort Sea, by ~1 day decade-1, cause a positive trend of poleward moist and heat transport over the East Siberian Sea by 7 kg m-1 s-1 decade-1 and 1.2  108 W m-1 decade-1, respectively, inducing surface warming and sea ice melt. However, in summer, shortwave radiation and subsidence within the blockings contribute more to the surface warming than the warm advection to the west of blockings.

National Category
Natural Sciences
Research subject
Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-198277OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-198277DiVA, id: diva2:1608101
Available from: 2021-11-02 Created: 2021-11-02 Last updated: 2021-11-03
In thesis
1. Arctic Atmospheric Rivers: Eulerian and Lagrangian features, and trends over the last 40 years
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Arctic Atmospheric Rivers: Eulerian and Lagrangian features, and trends over the last 40 years
2021 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Arctic Atmospheric rivers, termed ‘warm-and-moist intrusion’ (WaMAI) in this thesis, transporting heat and moisture into the Arctic from lower latitudes, is a key contributor to the amplified warming in the Arctic under global change (Arctic Amplification). However, the warming effect of WaMAIs and its transformation along the trajectories into high Arctic still remain unclear, as well as their relation with the large-scale atmospheric circulation.

A positive trend of poleward moisture and heat transport during 1979-2018 has been identified over the Barents Sea in winter and East Siberian Sea in summer. These positive trends are attributed to an increased blocking occurrence, as quantified by a blocking track algorithm. Given the increase in poleward energy transport and its impacts on the atmospheric energy budgets, it is necessary to focus on the Arctic atmospheric rivers in more detail. 

Therefore, a method is developed to detect WaMAIs during December~Febrary, June~August from 1979 to 2018, and to identify the Lagrangian transformation of warm-and-moist air mass in temperature, humidity, cloud water path, surface and boundary-layer energy-budget, along the trajectories of WaMAIs. The analysis shows that WaMAIs, driven by blocking high-pressure systems over the respective ocean sectors, induce an air mass transformation in the atmospheric boundary layer, resulting in surface warming and presumably additional sea ice melt, from positive anomalies of surface net longwave irradiance and turbulent flux. 

In summer, from a Lagrangian perspective, the surface energy-budget anomaly decreases linearly with the downstream distance from the sea-ice edge, while total column cloud liquid water (TCLW) increases linearly. An initially stably stratified boundary layer at the ice edge transforms into a deepening well-mixed boundary layer along the trajectories, from the continuous turbulent mixing. The boundary-layer energy-budget structures are categorized into two categories: one dominated by surface turbulent mixing (TBL) and one dominated by cloud-top radiative cooling (RAD). The magnitude of the large-scale atmospheric vertical motion, the subsidence, is critical in determining if the boundary layer develops into TBL or RAD.

In winter, over the completely ice-covered ocean sectors where the sea ice reaches all the way to the coast, the Lagrangian transformation of the boundary-layer energy-budget is similar to summer WaMAIs, while the surface energy-budget is dominated by longwave irradiance. On the other hand, over the Barents Sea, with an open ocean to the south, the net surface energy budget is dominated by the surface turbulent fluxes. The boundary-layer energy-budget over the Barents Sea can also be categorized into RAD and TBL, but are different from their summer counterparts.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, 2021. p. 30
Keywords
Arctic, Atmospheric river, Stratocumulus, Blocking, Turbulence, Longwave irradiance
National Category
Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Research subject
Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:su:diva-198079 (URN)978-91-7911-672-9 (ISBN)978-91-7911-673-6 (ISBN)
Public defence
2021-12-10, Vivi Täckholmsalen, (Q-salen), NPQ-huset, Svante Arrhenius väg 20, Stockholm, 10:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2021-11-17 Created: 2021-10-26 Last updated: 2025-02-07Bibliographically approved

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