TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the Tropically Excited Arctic Warming mechanism with station data
T2 - Links between tropical convection and Arctic downward infrared radiation
AU - Flournoy, Matthew D.
AU - Feldstein, Steven B.
AU - Lee, Sukyoung
AU - Clothiaux, Eugene E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study is supported by National Science Foundation Grants AGS-1139970, AGS-1036858, and AGS-1401220 and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Grant NA14OAR4310190. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. We also thank the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the Climate Analysis Branch of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory/Physical Sciences Division, and the World Radiation Monitoring Center-Baseline Surface Radiation Network for making available the ERA-Interim data, the outgoing longwave radiation data, and the downward IR station data, respectively.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Meteorological Society.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - The Tropically Excited Arctic Warming (TEAM) mechanism ascribes warming of the Arctic surface to tropical convection, which excites poleward-propagating Rossby wave trains that transport water vapor and heat into the Arctic. A crucial component of the TEAM mechanism is the increase in downward infrared radiation (IR) that precedes the Arctic warming. Previous studies have examined the downward IR associated with the TEAM mechanism using reanalysis data. To corroborate previous findings, this study examines the linkage between tropical convection, Rossby wave trains, and downward IR with Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) downward IR station data. The physical processes that drive changes in the downward IR are also investigated by regressing 300-hPa geopotential height, outgoing longwave radiation, water vapor flux, ERA-Interim downward IR, and other key variables against the BSRN downward IR at Barrow, Alaska, and Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen. Both the Barrow and the Ny-Ålesund station downward IR anomalies are preceded by anomalous tropical convection and poleward-propagating Rossby wave trains. The wave train associated with Barrow resembles the Pacific-North America teleconnection pattern, and that for Ny-Ålesund corresponds to a northwestern Atlantic wave train. It is found that both wave trains promote warm and moist advection from the midlatitudes into the Arctic. The resulting water vapor flux convergence, multiplied by the latent heat of vaporization, closely resembles the regressed ERA-Interim downward IR. These results suggest that the combination of warm advection, latent heat release, and increased cloudiness all contribute toward an increase in downward IR.
AB - The Tropically Excited Arctic Warming (TEAM) mechanism ascribes warming of the Arctic surface to tropical convection, which excites poleward-propagating Rossby wave trains that transport water vapor and heat into the Arctic. A crucial component of the TEAM mechanism is the increase in downward infrared radiation (IR) that precedes the Arctic warming. Previous studies have examined the downward IR associated with the TEAM mechanism using reanalysis data. To corroborate previous findings, this study examines the linkage between tropical convection, Rossby wave trains, and downward IR with Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) downward IR station data. The physical processes that drive changes in the downward IR are also investigated by regressing 300-hPa geopotential height, outgoing longwave radiation, water vapor flux, ERA-Interim downward IR, and other key variables against the BSRN downward IR at Barrow, Alaska, and Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen. Both the Barrow and the Ny-Ålesund station downward IR anomalies are preceded by anomalous tropical convection and poleward-propagating Rossby wave trains. The wave train associated with Barrow resembles the Pacific-North America teleconnection pattern, and that for Ny-Ålesund corresponds to a northwestern Atlantic wave train. It is found that both wave trains promote warm and moist advection from the midlatitudes into the Arctic. The resulting water vapor flux convergence, multiplied by the latent heat of vaporization, closely resembles the regressed ERA-Interim downward IR. These results suggest that the combination of warm advection, latent heat release, and increased cloudiness all contribute toward an increase in downward IR.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84962260455&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84962260455&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1175/JAS-D-14-0271.1
DO - 10.1175/JAS-D-14-0271.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84962260455
SN - 0022-4928
VL - 73
SP - 1143
EP - 1158
JO - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
JF - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
IS - 3
ER -