The effects of interactions between surface forcings in the development of a model-simulated polar low in Hudson Bay

Gachon, Philippe; Laprise, René; Zwack, Peter; Saucier, François J.

doi:10.1034/j.1600-0870.2003.201267.x

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

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“…These reanalysis fields are widely used in Canadian atmospheric and oceanographic community studies. CRCM was applied in previous Arctic studies [Gachon et al, 2003;Qian et al, 2008;Wyser et al, 2008;Joly et al, 2011]. In particular, Wyser et al [2008] implemented CRCM in the western Arctic to compare eight regional climate models, showing that CRCM has a reasonable simulation of Arctic climatology.…”

Section: Atmospheric Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air‐sea interactions during an Arctic storm

Long

Perrie

2012

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] The impacts of increased open water in the Beaufort Sea were investigated for a summer Arctic storm in 2008 using a coupled atmosphere-ice-ocean model. The storm originated in northern Siberia and slowly moved into the Beaufort Sea along the ice edge in late July. The maximum wind associated with the storm occurred when it was located over the open water near the Beaufort Sea coast, after it had moved over the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The coupled model system is shown to simulate the storm track, intensity, maximum wind speed and the ice cover well. The model simulations suggest that the lack of ice cover in the Beaufort Sea during the 2008 storm results in increased local surface wind and surface air temperature, compared to enhanced ice cover extents such as occurred in past decades. In addition, due to this increase of open water, the surface latent and sensible heat fluxes into the atmosphere are significantly increased. However, there were no significant impacts on the storm track. The expanded open water and the loss of the sea ice results in increases in the surface air temperature by as much as 8 C. Although the atmospheric warming mostly occurs in the boundary layer, there is increased atmospheric boundary turbulence and downward kinetic energy transport that reach to mid-levels of the troposphere and beyond. These changes result in enhanced surface winds, by as much as $4 m/s during the 2008 storm, compared to higher ice concentration conditions (typical of past decades). The dominant sea surface temperature response to the storm occurs over open water; storm-generated mixing in the upper ocean results in sea surface cooling of up to 2 C along the southern Beaufort Sea coastal waters. The Ekman divergence associated with the storm caused a decrease in the fresh water content in the central Beaufort Sea by about 11 cm.

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Section: Atmospheric Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Air‐sea interactions during an Arctic storm

Long

Perrie

2012

J. Geophys. Res.

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Temperature change signals in northern Canada: convergence of statistical downscaling results using two driving GCMs

Gachon

Dibike

2007

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Abstract:Coarse resolution global climate models (GCMs) have inherent difficulty simulating a reliable climate regime in coastal areas, as in northern Canada, where sea ice and snow cover are highly sensitive to fine-scale climate forcings. As a result, strong biases are present in GCM temperature regimes in this region, and the direct use of raw-GCM climate change signals at the local scale is problematic. However, fine resolution climate change information for use in impact studies can be obtained via statistical downscaling (SD) methods. This study investigates the regression-based SDSM model with respect to its potential to simulate reliable and plausible changes in mean values as well as probabilities of extreme temperatures, in some specific locations in northern Canada. Four sets of independent climate predictors, from the outputs of two GCMs (i.e. CGCM2 and HadCM3) and using two SRES emission scenarios (i.e. A2 and B2), are used by the SDSM model to construct climate scenario information for this region over the period 2070-2099. The results demonstrate that the SD model is able to capture the major part of the temperature change signal, with a plausible climatic regime for higher warming in winter than in summer and in A2 than in B2 runs. The combination of relevant atmospheric predictors in the SD process is able to take into account most key factors of the temperature change signal, with strong convergence in the magnitude and the timing of the changes in all results. The downscaling signals are more consensual and physically-plausible in comparison with the raw GCM anomalies, with relatively better skill using HadCM3 predictors than those from CGCM2. The study also confirms that scrupulous analysis of the climate change regime and its temporal and spatial distribution at the scale of interest is essential for it to be useful in impact studies.

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Impact of sea spray‐mediated heat fluxes on polar low development

Lin,

Spengler,

Rutgersson

et al. 2024

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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Sea spray, originating from wave breaking under high wind conditions, can significantly affect turbulent heat fluxes at the air–sea interface. Even though polar lows (PLs) can become extreme weather features with gale‐force wind, the impact of sea spray on their development has rarely been investigated and is not considered in operational forecast models. In this study, the impact of sea spray on the development of two PLs over the Barents Sea is studied based on sensitivity experiments with an atmosphere–wave coupled model, where the spray‐mediated heat fluxes are parameterized. The results show that the impact of sea‐spray‐mediated heat fluxes on PL development is sensitive to the surface wind speed. In the case of the stronger PL, the higher surface wind speed results in significantly higher spray‐mediated heat fluxes. Consequently, these spray‐mediated heat fluxes intensify the convection and diabatic heating of the PL, resulting in its intensification. In comparison, the case with a weaker PL experiences less sea spray production and lower spray‐mediated heat fluxes due to its weaker surface wind speeds. Overall, we find that spray‐mediated sensible heat fluxes play an important role in the development of PLs, while the latent heat fluxes induced by sea spray have a relatively minor impact.

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The effects of interactions between surface forcings in the development of a model-simulated polar low in Hudson Bay

Cited by 9 publications

References 18 publications

Air‐sea interactions during an Arctic storm

Air‐sea interactions during an Arctic storm

Temperature change signals in northern Canada: convergence of statistical downscaling results using two driving GCMs

Impact of sea spray‐mediated heat fluxes on polar low development

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