A Model-Based Diagnostic Study of the Rapid Development Phase of the Presidents's Day Cyclone

Whitaker, Jeffrey S.; Uccellini, Louis W.; Brill, Keith F.

doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1988)116<2337:ambdso>2.0.co;2

Cited by 104 publications

(68 citation statements)

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“…Theoretical studies of moist baroclinic waves using linear and nonlinear models and different latent heating parameterizations have demonstrated that diabatic processes increase the growth rate and lead to a contraction of the region of ascent (Mak 1982;Emanuel et al 1987;Whitaker and Davis 1994). An increase in moisture results in an enhanced cyclone intensification rate, a decrease in the minimum central pressure, and an increase in precipitation and extreme surface winds (Booth et al 2013).…”

Section: A Moist Baroclinic Instabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Examples of strongly diabatically influenced, explosively intensifying cyclones include the Queen Elisabeth II storm in 1978 (Anthes et al 1983;Gyakum 1983a,b), the Presidents' Day storm in 1979 (Bosart 1981;Atlas 1987;Whitaker et al 1988), the Scamp storm in 1987 (Reed et al 1992;Stoelinga 1996), Lothar in 1999 (Wernli et al 2002;Rivière et al 2010), and, more recently, Xynthia in 2010 (Fink et al 2012;Liberato et al 2013;Ludwig et al 2014). In their mature stage, most of these cyclones were associated with a pronounced PV tower, with the low-level positive PV anomaly resulting from intense condensational PV production.…”

Section: B Diabatic Processes In Real Cyclonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They all intensified explosively, and most of them were associated with a strong WCB. Among those with a particularly strong WCB are the storms Martin (Ulbrich et al 2001) and Xynthia (Liberato et al 2013), which caused major damage in western and central Europe, as well as several memorable storms along and off the U.S. East Coast, like the Presidents' Day snowstorm (Bosart 1981;Atlas 1987;Whitaker et al 1988), the snowstorms of 4-5 February 1995 (Nicosia and Grumm 1999) and 24-25 January 2000 (Zhang et al 2002), and the devastating windstorm Scamp (Reed et al 1992;Stoelinga 1996).…”

Section: Connection Between Cyclone Intensification Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

Binder

Boettcher

Joos

et al. 2016

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

114

135

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The role of warm conveyor belts (WCBs) and their associated positive low-level potential vorticity (PV) anomalies are investigated for extratropical cyclones in Northern Hemisphere winter, using ERA-Interim and composite techniques. The Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.68 implies a moderate to strong correlation between cyclone intensification and WCB strength. Hereby, cyclone intensification is quantified by the normalized maximum 24-h central sea level pressure deepening and WCB strength by the WCB air mass associated with the cyclone's 24-h period of strongest deepening. Explosively intensifying cyclones typically have strong WCBs and pronounced WCB-related PV production in the cyclone center; they are associated with a WCB of type W2, which ascends close to the cyclone center. Cyclones with similar WCB strength but weak intensification are either diabatic Rossby waves, which do not interact with an upper-level disturbance, or cyclones where much of the WCB-related PV production occurs far from the cyclone center and thereby does not contribute strongly to cyclone deepening (WCB of type W1, which ascends mainly along the cold front). The category of explosively intensifying cyclones with weak WCBs is inhomogeneous but often characterized by a very low tropopause or latent heating independent of WCBs. These findings reveal that (i) diabatic PV production in WCBs is essential for the intensification of many explosive cyclones, (ii) the importance of WCBs for cyclone development strongly depends on the location of the PV production relative to the cyclone center, and (iii) a minority of explosive cyclones is not associated with WCBs.

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Section: A Moist Baroclinic Instabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B Diabatic Processes In Real Cyclonesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Connection Between Cyclone Intensification Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

Binder

Boettcher

Joos

et al. 2016

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

114

135

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Danielsen, 1964;Shapiro, 1980;Holton et al, 1995;Stohl et al, 2003), and the extratropical cyclone life cycle (e.g. Uccellini et al, 1985;Sanders, 1988;Whitaker et al, 1988;Barnes and Colman, 1993;Lackmann et al, 1997). For a detailed review of the first half-century of research on ULJFs the reader is directed to Keyser and Shapiro (1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of studies, including Uccellini et al (1985), Sanders (1988), Whitaker et al (1988), Barnes and Colman (1993) and Lackmann et al (1997), have demonstrated the role of upper tropospheric frontogenesis in the development of surface cyclones. These studies suggested that the ageostrophic transverse vertical circulation associated with a dynamically active ULJF not only provides the cross-stream differential subsidence required to intensify the upper level front, but simultaneously steepens and lowers the dynamic tropopause below the jet core.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The structure and evolution of lower stratospheric frontal zones. Part 1: Examples in northwesterly and southwesterly flow

Lang

Martin

2012

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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The structure, evolution and dynamics of two lower stratospheric frontal zones are examined from a basic state variables perspective. The case studies highlight the asynchronous evolution of the lower stratospheric and upper tropospheric frontal portions of upper level jet-front (ULJF) systems, as well as some substantial differences in lower stratospheric frontal development that occur in southwesterly and northwesterly flow. The evolution of the ULJF in northwesterly flow was characterized by an initially intense but weakening lower stratospheric front along with an initially weak but intensifying upper tropospheric front. Throughout the evolution, geostrophic cold air advection in cyclonic shear characterized a substantial portion of the lower stratospheric front. This circumstance supported subsidence through the local jet core within the cold upper troposphere, weakening the lower stratospheric front via tilting. This subsidence extended downward below the jet core where it is suggested to have played a role in the early stages of upper tropospheric frontogenesis. In the southwesterly flow case, the evolution of the ULJF was characterized by a strengthening lower stratospheric front and a weakening upper

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Multiyear Composite View of Ozone Enhancements and Stratosphere‐to‐Troposphere Transport in Dry Intrusions of Northern Hemisphere Extratropical Cyclones

2017

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We examine the role of extratropical cyclones in stratosphere‐to‐troposphere (STT) exchange with cyclone‐centric composites of O3 retrievals from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), contrasting them to composites obtained with the Modern‐Era Retrospective‐analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA and MERRA‐2) reanalyses and the GEOS‐Chem chemical transport model. We identify 15,978 extratropical cyclones in the northern hemisphere (NH) for 2005–2012. The lowermost stratosphere (261 hPa) and middle troposphere (424 hPa) composites feature a 1,000 km wide O3 enhancement in the dry intrusion (DI) airstream to the southwest of the cyclone center, coinciding with a lowered tropopause, enhanced potential vorticity, and decreased H2O. MLS composites at 261 hPa show that the DI O3 enhancements reach a 210 ppbv maximum in April. At 424 hPa, TES composites display maximum O3 enhancements of 27 ppbv in May. The magnitude and seasonality of these enhancements are captured by MERRA and MERRA‐2, but GEOS‐Chem is a factor of 2 too low. The MERRA‐2 composites show that the O3‐rich DI forms a vertically aligned structure between 300 and 800 hPa, wrapping cyclonically with the warm conveyor belt. In winter and spring DIs, O3 is enhanced by 100 ppbv or 100–130% at 300 hPa, with significant enhancements below 500 hPa (6–20 ppbv or 15–30%). We estimate that extratropical cyclones result in a STT flux of 119 ± 56 Tg O3 yr−1, accounting for 42 ± 20% of the NH extratropical O3 STT flux. The STT flux in cyclones displays a strong dependence on westerly 300 hPa wind speeds.

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A Model-Based Diagnostic Study of the Rapid Development Phase of the Presidents's Day Cyclone

Cited by 104 publications

References 0 publications

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

The Role of Warm Conveyor Belts for the Intensification of Extratropical Cyclones in Northern Hemisphere Winter

The structure and evolution of lower stratospheric frontal zones. Part 1: Examples in northwesterly and southwesterly flow

Multiyear Composite View of Ozone Enhancements and Stratosphere‐to‐Troposphere Transport in Dry Intrusions of Northern Hemisphere Extratropical Cyclones

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