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Relationship between weather regimes and atmospheric rivers in East Antarctica
Citation
Pohl, B and Favier, V and Wille, J and Udy, DG and Vance, TR and Pergaud, J and Dutrievoz, N and Blanchet, J and Kittel, C and Amory, C and Krinner, G and Codron, F, Relationship between weather regimes and atmospheric rivers in East Antarctica, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126, (24) Article e2021JD035294. ISSN 2169-897X (2021) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2021 American Geophysical Union
Abstract
Here, we define weather regimes in the East Antarctica—Southern Ocean sector based on daily anomalies of 700 hPa geopotential height derived from ERA5 reanalysis during 1979–2018. Most regimes and their preferred transitions depict synoptic-scale disturbances propagating eastwards off the Antarctic coastline. While regime sequences are generally short, their interannual variability is strongly driven by the polarity of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Regime occurrences are then intersected with atmospheric rivers (ARs) detected over the same region and period. ARs are equiprobable throughout the year, but clearly concentrate during regimes associated with a strong atmospheric ridges/blockings on the eastern part of the domain, which act to channel meridional advection of heat and moisture from the lower latitudes towards Antarctica. Both regimes and ARs significantly shape climate variability in Antarctica. Regimes favorable to AR occurrences are associated with anomalously warm and humid conditions in coastal Antarctica and, to a lesser extent, the hinterland parts of the Antarctic plateau. These anomalies are strongly enhanced during AR events, with warmer anomalies and dramatically amplified snowfall amounts. Large-scale conditions favoring AR development are finally explored. They show weak dependency to the SAM, but particularly strong atmospheric ridges/blockings over the Southern Ocean appear as the most favorable pattern, in which ARs can be embedded, and to which they contribute.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Southern Indian Ocean, synoptics, atmospheric dynamics, climate variability |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Atmospheric sciences |
| Research Field: | Atmospheric dynamics |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
| Objective Group: | Air quality, atmosphere and weather |
| Objective Field: | Atmospheric processes and dynamics |
| UTAS Author: | Udy, DG (Ms Danielle Udy) |
| UTAS Author: | Vance, TR (Dr Tessa Vance) |
| ID Code: | 149043 |
| Year Published: | 2021 |
| Funding Support: | Australian Research Council (DP180102522) |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 4 |
| Deposited By: | Australian Antarctic Program Partnership |
| Deposited On: | 2022-03-03 |
| Last Modified: | 2022-08-29 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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