A Climatology of the Aleutian High

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Abstract
Three global datasets are used to investigate climatological properties of the high pressure system commonly found in the boreal winter stratosphere over the Aleutian Islands. Based on a detailed examination of 10 years (1985–1994) of data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in the layer 250−10 hpa, the following definition of the “Aleutian High” is proposed: 1) 10-hPa heights exceeding 30.8 km in the sector 40°–80°N, 120°E–100°W, 2) during 1 October–31 March, 3) with areal extent greater than 50° long × 10° lat., 4) with relative vorticity of less than −2.5 × 10−5 s−1, and 5) lasting at least 5 days. More than 60% of days during December, January, and February satisfied these criteria. The 711 total days were averaged together, yielding an Aleutian High Composite (AHC). These ECMWF dates are used to create an AHC with data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (formerly the National Meteorological Center.) The definition is applied (with slight modificati... Abstract Three global datasets are used to investigate climatological properties of the high pressure system commonly found in the boreal winter stratosphere over the Aleutian Islands. Based on a detailed examination of 10 years (1985–1994) of data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in the layer 250−10 hpa, the following definition of the “Aleutian High” is proposed: 1) 10-hPa heights exceeding 30.8 km in the sector 40°–80°N, 120°E–100°W, 2) during 1 October–31 March, 3) with areal extent greater than 50° long × 10° lat., 4) with relative vorticity of less than −2.5 × 10−5 s−1, and 5) lasting at least 5 days. More than 60% of days during December, January, and February satisfied these criteria. The 711 total days were averaged together, yielding an Aleutian High Composite (AHC). These ECMWF dates are used to create an AHC with data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (formerly the National Meteorological Center.) The definition is applied (with slight modificati...

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