Stratospheric Vacillation Cycles

Holton, James R.; Mass, Clifford F.

doi:10.1175/1520-0469(1976)033<2218:svc>2.0.co;2

Cited by 285 publications

(232 citation statements)

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“…In spite of a strong westerly jet, planetary waves propagate along the jet core and stratospheric vacillation occurs throughout the winter due to the interaction between the zonal wind and planetary waves [Holton and Mass, 1976]. Figure 4 shows (a) the vertical shear of zonal wind in the upper stratosphere averaged over 60°N-70°N, (b) the vertical component of the E-P flux at 100 hPa averaged over 45°N-75°N, (c) the zonally asymmetric component of 500 hPa geopotential height averaged over 60°N-70°N, (d) the daily blocking strength, and (e) the transient synoptic eddy heat flux at 850 hPa averaged over the northwestern Pacific (130°E-150°E, 30°N-45°N) from 1 November 2010 to 31 March 2011.…”

Section: -2011 Wintermentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the vertical and zonal propagation of stratospheric planetary waves on tropospheric blockings

2013

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[1] Case studies are used to elucidate the relationship between stratospheric planetary wave reflection and blocking formation in the troposphere. The enhanced upward propagation of a planetary-scale wave packet from the Eurasian sector, involving a Euro-Atlantic blocking, leads to a stratospheric sudden warming (SSW). Following the weakening of the stratospheric westerly jet due to polar warming, the stratospheric planetary wave packet then propagates downward over the American sector, inducing a ridge over the North Pacific as well as a trough over eastern Canada in the upper troposphere. The ridge promotes the formation of a Pacific blocking. This result explains why Pacific blockings tend to form after SSW, and why they are associated with suppressed upward propagation of planetary waves.Citation: Kodera, K., H. Mukougawa, and A. Fujii (2013), Influence of the vertical and zonal propagation of stratospheric planetary waves on tropospheric blockings,

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Section: -2011 Wintermentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the vertical and zonal propagation of stratospheric planetary waves on tropospheric blockings

2013

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“…The last term, where V is a double-well potential (Figure 4), takes care of the interaction between eddies and zonal wind. Most simply it can be taken into account in the Holton-Mass approximation (Holton and Mass, 1976), which couples the equations for the mean zonal wind velocity and potential vorticity perturbations caused by the planetary waves. In this approximation the system has two control parameters: the initial amplitude of the waves and the gradient of the background zonal wind that define the equilibrium solutions (attractors) of the system (Yoden, 1987;Ruzmaikin et al, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Residence time distributions of the Northern Annular Mode

Ruzmaikin

2009

Intl Journal of Climatology

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ABSTRACT:The Northern Annular Mode (NAM) is a large-scale climatic anomaly pattern characterizing the atmospheric circulation in the polar and the mid-latitude regions. To help in understanding the basic physics underlying the NAM we determine and examine the probability distributions of residence times in the positive and negative phases of the NAM. These distributions are found to have only slightly different mean residence times but differ strongly in their tails. The difference in the tails of the distributions expresses a dominance of one phase of the NAM over the other during rarely occurring events such as the dominant positive NAM in the mid 1960s to the late 1990s.We investigate a possible influence of solar variability on the residence time distributions and find that at high solar activity the NAM spends slightly more time in its negative phase in the stratosphere and slightly less time (compared to the positive phase) in the troposphere. Much stronger influence on the NAM may occur during rare but prolonged changes in solar activity. This extends the conjecture that external forcing only affects the mean residence times ('occupation frequencies') of the dynamical states. An example is the dominance of the negative NAM during the 70-year long Maunder Minimum.The distributions are consistent with generation by a non-linear process of random transitions between two equilibrium states of a system with the addition of a small forced component. A simple two-well potential model provides an approximate description of this process elucidating its dynamics as well as the effect of external influences on the annular modes. Published in

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“…This upward effect has been well documented in observational and theoretical studies of stratospheric phenomena such as stratospheric sudden warming (e.g., Holton and Mass 1976;Labitzke 1982;Matsuno 1971) and quasi-biennial oscillation (e.g., Holton and Lindzen 1972;Lindzen and Holton 1968;Plumb 1977). However, studies in the recent decades have revealed that stratosphere can play an important role in the near surface climate change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%