Synoptic Behavior of Baroclinic Eddies during the Blocking Onset

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Synoptic behavior of individual baroclinic eddies in the course of their interactions with amplifying blocking anticyclones is examined, based upon a 30-year record of the tropospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere winter. High-pass-filtered as well as unfiltered fields of geopotential height and potential vorticity were composited relative to the onset of the five different types of blocking patterns. Before the compositing, the entire sequence of the fields was slightly shifted in time and space in such a way that the strongest baroclinic eddy, during the onset of each blocking event, occupies a prescribed position in the upstream storm track when it reaches its maximum intensity. Since this shifting considerably reduces the cancellation between the individual high-frequency migratory eddies, this type of compositing can present a more synoptically oriented view of those interactions than conventional compositing. In our composite results, one or two pairs of cyclonic and anticyclonic ... Abstract Synoptic behavior of individual baroclinic eddies in the course of their interactions with amplifying blocking anticyclones is examined, based upon a 30-year record of the tropospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere winter. High-pass-filtered as well as unfiltered fields of geopotential height and potential vorticity were composited relative to the onset of the five different types of blocking patterns. Before the compositing, the entire sequence of the fields was slightly shifted in time and space in such a way that the strongest baroclinic eddy, during the onset of each blocking event, occupies a prescribed position in the upstream storm track when it reaches its maximum intensity. Since this shifting considerably reduces the cancellation between the individual high-frequency migratory eddies, this type of compositing can present a more synoptically oriented view of those interactions than conventional compositing. In our composite results, one or two pairs of cyclonic and anticyclonic ...

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: