Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Exploration of turbulent heat fluxes and wind stress curl in WRF and ERA‐Interim during wintertime mesoscale wind events around southeastern Greenland

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022991· OSTI ID:1402219
 [1];  [1]
  1. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences Boulder Colorado USA, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences University of Colorado Boulder Boulder Colorado USA

Abstract

The strong, mesoscale tip jets and barrier winds that occur off the coast of southeastern Greenland drive large surface turbulent heat fluxes that may impact deep ocean convection. The turbulent fluxes and wind stress curl associated with 10 m wind patterns identified using the self‐organizing map technique are investigated for 10 winters (1997–2007, November‐December‐January‐February‐March) in the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Interim Reanalysis (ERA‐I) and a regional simulation using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at 50 km. Sensible heat flux differences between WRF and ERA‐I are primarily due to differences in near‐surface temperature, while latent heat flux differences are driven by both moisture and wind speed differences. The largest turbulent flux differences occur over the marginal ice zone where the fluxes in WRF are larger than in ERA‐I due to specified sea ice thickness that influences the near‐surface atmospheric temperature and moisture; WRF has larger magnitude wind stress curl over the Irminger Sea. Patterns of strong westerly tip jet with barrier flow are most likely to impact preconditioning and convection in the Irminger Sea compared to other manifestations of westerly tip jets, and easterly tip jets are expected to have localized ocean impacts south of Cape Farewell.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-07ER64462; SC0006178
OSTI ID:
1402219
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 120; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (58)

Arctic marginal ice zone trending wider in summer and narrower in winter journal September 2013
Aircraft-based observations of air–sea fluxes over Denmark Strait and the Irminger Sea during high wind speed conditions journal October 2009
A comparison of aircraft-based surface-layer observations over Denmark Strait and the Irminger Sea with meteorological analyses and QuikSCAT winds
  • Renfrew, I. A.; Petersen, G. N.; Sproson, D. A. J.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 135, Issue 645 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.444
journal October 2009
Multi-event analysis of the westerly Greenland tip jet based upon 45 winters in ERA-40
  • VÃ¥ge, Kjetil; Spengler, Thomas; Davies, Huw C.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 135, Issue 645 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.488
journal October 2009
Profile relationships: The log-linear range, and extension to strong stability journal January 1970
Flux-gradient relationships in the constant flux layer journal October 1970
On the impact of high-resolution, high-frequency meteorological forcing on Denmark Strait ocean circulation
  • Haine, T. W. N.; Zhang, S.; Moore, G. W. K.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 135, Issue 645 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.505
journal October 2009
The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system journal April 2011
Convection in the Western North Atlantic Sub-Polar Gyre: Do Small-Scale Wind Events Matter? book January 2008
Self-Organizing Maps book January 2001
The global climatology of an interannually varying air–sea flux data set journal August 2008
The Arctic’s rapidly shrinking sea ice cover: a research synthesis journal June 2011
Sea ice thickness distribution in the Arctic Ocean journal April 1987
The Irminger Gyre: Circulation, convection, and interannual variability journal May 2011
Convective mixing in the central Irminger Sea: 2002–2010 journal May 2012
Revised circulation scheme north of the Denmark Strait journal September 2013
Thickness sensitivities in the CICE sea ice model journal January 2010
A generalized approach to parameterizing convection combining ensemble and data assimilation techniques: PARAMETERIZING CONVECTION COMBINING ENSEMBLE AND DATA ASSIMILATION TECHNIQUES journal July 2002
Open-ocean convection in the Irminger Sea: OPEN-OCEAN CONVECTION IN THE IRMINGER SEA journal March 2003
Gale force winds over the Irminger Sea to the east of Cape Farewell, Greenland: GALE FORCE WINDS OVER THE IRMINGER SEA journal September 2003
Global atmospheric forcing data for Arctic ice-ocean modeling journal January 2007
Assimilating synthetic CryoSat sea ice thickness in a coupled ice-ocean model journal January 2007
Air-sea interaction associated with a Greenland reverse tip jet journal January 2007
Atmospheric conditions associated with oceanic convection in the south-east Labrador Sea journal January 2008
A QuikSCAT climatology of ocean surface winds in the Nordic seas: Identification of features and comparison with the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis journal January 2008
What drove the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice during summer 2007? journal January 2008
Reduced ice thickness in Arctic Transpolar Drift favors rapid ice retreat journal January 2008
Variability of sea ice simulations assessed with RGPS kinematics journal January 2008
A parameterization of Greenland's tip jets suitable for ocean or coupled climate models journal January 2010
A new look at Greenland flow distortion and its impact on barrier flow, tip jets and coastal oceanography: GREENLAND FLOW DISTORTION journal November 2012
Bulk parameterization of air-sea fluxes for Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere Coupled-Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment journal February 1996
Open-ocean convection: Observations, theory, and models journal February 1999
Deep convection in the World Ocean journal January 1983
Deep convection in the Irminger Sea forced by the Greenland tip jet journal July 2003
Surprising return of deep convection to the subpolar North Atlantic Ocean in winter 2007–2008 journal November 2008
Relative Performance of Self-Organizing Maps and Principal Component Analysis in Pattern Extraction from Synthetic Climatological Data journal July 2005
Perspectives on the Arctic's Shrinking Sea-Ice Cover journal March 2007
Bulk Parameterization of Air–Sea Fluxes: Updates and Verification for the COARE Algorithm journal February 2003
Which Bulk Aerodynamic Algorithms are Least Problematic in Computing Ocean Surface Turbulent Fluxes? journal February 2003
The Mathematical Representation of Wind Speed and Temperature Profiles in the Unstable Atmospheric Surface Layer journal December 1970
The Formation of Labrador Sea Water. Part II. Mesoscale and Smaller-Scale Processes journal October 1983
A Comparison of Surface Layer and Surface Turbulent Flux Observations over the Labrador Sea with ECMWF Analyses and NCEP Reanalyses journal February 2002
Observations of Open-Ocean Deep Convection in the Labrador Sea from Subsurface Floats* journal February 2002
Coupling an Advanced Land Surface–Hydrology Model with the Penn State–NCAR MM5 Modeling System. Part I: Model Implementation and Sensitivity journal April 2001
Winter Mixed Layer Development in the Central Irminger Sea: The Effect of Strong, Intermittent Wind Events journal March 2008
A Climatology of Wintertime Barrier Winds off Southeast Greenland journal September 2011
Wind-Driven Recirculations and Exchange in the Labrador and Irminger Seas* journal August 2003
Evaluation of Seven Different Atmospheric Reanalysis Products in the Arctic journal April 2014
Strong Downslope Wind Events in Ammassalik, Southeast Greenland journal February 2014
Mesoscale Structure of Cape Farewell Tip Jets journal December 2014
Tip Jets and Barrier Winds: A QuikSCAT Climatology of High Wind Speed Events around Greenland journal September 2005
The Response of the Sea Ice Edge to Atmospheric and Oceanic Jet Formation journal September 2014
Performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model for Month-Long Pan-Arctic Simulations journal November 2011
Evaluation of WRF Model Resolution on Simulated Mesoscale Winds and Surface Fluxes near Greenland journal March 2013
Sea Ice Enhancements to Polar WRF* journal June 2015
A New Vertical Diffusion Package with an Explicit Treatment of Entrainment Processes journal September 2006
Goddard Cumulus Ensemble Model. Part I: Model Description journal January 1993
Self-organizing maps: applications to synoptic climatology journal January 2002

Similar Records

The climatological distribution of extreme Arctic winds and implications for ocean and sea ice processes
Journal Article · Thu Aug 06 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · OSTI ID:1402128

Assessment of Land Surface Model Performance in WRF for Simulating Wind at Heights Relevant to the Wind Energy Community
Technical Report · Tue Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · OSTI ID:1097768

Related Subjects