Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability
Previous research has linked wintertime Arctic Oscillation (AO) variability to indices of Siberian snow cover and upward wave activity flux in the preceding fall season. Here, daily data are used to examine the surface and tropospheric processes that occur as the link between snow cover and upward f...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Meteorological Society
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93892 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5364-8543 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8362-4761 |
| _version_ | 1811070705670815744 |
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| author | Cohen, Judah Furtado, Jason C. Jones, Justin Barlow, Mathew Whittleston, David Entekhabi, Dara |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Cohen, Judah Furtado, Jason C. Jones, Justin Barlow, Mathew Whittleston, David Entekhabi, Dara |
| author_sort | Cohen, Judah |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Previous research has linked wintertime Arctic Oscillation (AO) variability to indices of Siberian snow cover and upward wave activity flux in the preceding fall season. Here, daily data are used to examine the surface and tropospheric processes that occur as the link between snow cover and upward forcing into the stratosphere develops. October Eurasian mean snow cover is found to be significantly related to sea level pressure (SLP) and to lower-stratosphere (100 hPa) meridional heat flux. Analysis of daily SLP and 100-hPa heat flux shows that in years with high October snow, the SLP is significantly higher from approximately 1 November to 15 December, and the 100-hPa heat flux is significantly increased with a two-week lag, from approximately 15 November to 31 December. During November–December, there are periods with upward wave activity flux extending coherently from the surface to the stratosphere, and these events occur nearly twice as often in high snow years compared to low snow years. The vertical structure of these events is a westward-tilting pattern of high eddy heights, with the largest normalized anomalies near the surface in the same region as the snow and SLP changes. These results suggest that high SLP develops in response to the snow cover and this higher pressure, in turn, provides part of the structure of a surface-to-stratosphere wave activity flux event, thus making full events more likely. Implications for improved winter forecasts exist through recognition of these precursor signals. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:40:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/93892 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:40:16Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | American Meteorological Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/938922022-09-23T13:43:07Z Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability Cohen, Judah Furtado, Jason C. Jones, Justin Barlow, Mathew Whittleston, David Entekhabi, Dara Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Whittleston, David Entekhabi, Dara Previous research has linked wintertime Arctic Oscillation (AO) variability to indices of Siberian snow cover and upward wave activity flux in the preceding fall season. Here, daily data are used to examine the surface and tropospheric processes that occur as the link between snow cover and upward forcing into the stratosphere develops. October Eurasian mean snow cover is found to be significantly related to sea level pressure (SLP) and to lower-stratosphere (100 hPa) meridional heat flux. Analysis of daily SLP and 100-hPa heat flux shows that in years with high October snow, the SLP is significantly higher from approximately 1 November to 15 December, and the 100-hPa heat flux is significantly increased with a two-week lag, from approximately 15 November to 31 December. During November–December, there are periods with upward wave activity flux extending coherently from the surface to the stratosphere, and these events occur nearly twice as often in high snow years compared to low snow years. The vertical structure of these events is a westward-tilting pattern of high eddy heights, with the largest normalized anomalies near the surface in the same region as the snow and SLP changes. These results suggest that high SLP develops in response to the snow cover and this higher pressure, in turn, provides part of the structure of a surface-to-stratosphere wave activity flux event, thus making full events more likely. Implications for improved winter forecasts exist through recognition of these precursor signals. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant BCS-1060323) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AGS-1303647) United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA Grant NA10OAR4310163) 2015-02-06T15:52:53Z 2015-02-06T15:52:53Z 2014-07 2013-12 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0894-8755 1520-0442 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93892 Cohen, Judah, Jason C. Furtado, Justin Jones, Mathew Barlow, David Whittleston, and Dara Entekhabi. “Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability.” J. Climate 27, no. 14 (July 2014): 5422–5432. © 2014 American Meteorological Society. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5364-8543 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8362-4761 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00779.1 Journal of Climate Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Meteorological Society American Meteorological Society |
| spellingShingle | Cohen, Judah Furtado, Jason C. Jones, Justin Barlow, Mathew Whittleston, David Entekhabi, Dara Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability |
| title | Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability |
| title_full | Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability |
| title_fullStr | Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability |
| title_short | Linking Siberian Snow Cover to Precursors of Stratospheric Variability |
| title_sort | linking siberian snow cover to precursors of stratospheric variability |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/93892 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5364-8543 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8362-4761 |
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