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

Representation of Extratropical Cyclones, Blocking Anticyclones, and Alpine Circulation Types in Multiple Reanalyses and Model Simulations

Journal Article · · Journal of Climate
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Bern (Switzerland)
  2. ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
  3. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab.
+ Show Author Affiliations
Atmospheric circulation types, blockings, and cyclones are prime features of the extratropical flow and key to understanding the climate system. This study intercompares the representation of these features in 10 reanalyses and in an ensemble of 30 climate model simulations between 1980 and 2005. Both modern, full-input reanalyses and century-long, surface-input reanalyses are examined. Modern full-input reanalyses agree well on key statistics of blockings, cyclones, and circulation types. Yet, the intensity and depth of cyclones vary among them. Reanalyses with higher horizontal resolution show higher cyclone center densities and more intense cyclones. For blockings, no strict relationship is found between frequency or intensity and horizontal resolution. Full-input reanalyses contain more intense blocking, compared to surface-input reanalyses. Circulation-type classifications over central Europe show that both versions of the Twentieth Century Reanalysis dataset contain more easterlies and fewer westerlies than any other reanalysis, owing to their high pressure bias over northeast Europe. The temporal correlation of annual circulation types over central Europe and blocking frequencies over the North Atlantic–European domain between reanalyses is high (around 0.8). The ensemble simulations capture the main characteristics of midlatitudinal atmospheric circulation. Circulation types of westerlies to northerlies over central Europe are overrepresented. There are too few blockings in the higher latitudes and an excess of cyclones in the midlatitudes. Other characteristics, such as blocking amplitude and cyclone intensity, are realistically represented, making the ensemble simulations a rich dataset to assess changes in climate variability.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Organization:
Swiss National Science Foundation; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
OSTI ID:
1544332
Journal Information:
Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 31; ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (79)

Exploring recent trends in Northern Hemisphere blocking journal January 2014
Propagation of biases in climate models from the synoptic to the regional scale: Implications for bias adjustment: Circulation Biases in RCM Simulations journal March 2016
An ensemble of ocean reanalyses for 1815-2013 with sparse observational input: OCEAN REANALYSES FOR 1815-2013 journal September 2016
The International Surface Pressure Databank version 2 journal July 2015
The importance of fronts for extreme precipitation: FRONTS AND PRECIPITATION EXTREMES journal October 2013
Two-dimensional indices of atmospheric blocking and their statistical relationship with winter climate patterns in the Euro-Atlantic region journal January 2006
An analysis of present and future ECHAM5 pressure fields using a classification of circulation patterns journal October 2009
Recent trends of thunderstorm and hailstorm frequency and their relation to atmospheric characteristics in southwest Germany journal December 2009
ICOADS Release 2.5: extensions and enhancements to the surface marine meteorological archive journal March 2010
A comparison of Lamb circulation types with an objective classification scheme journal September 1993
Lamb weather types derived from reanalysis products journal April 2012
Development and comparison of circulation type classifications using the COST 733 dataset and software: DEVELOPMENT AND COMPARISON OF CIRCULATION TYPE CLASSIFICATIONS journal March 2014
Reconstruction of Central European daily weather types back to 1763: RECONSTRUCTION OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN DAILY WEATHER TYPES journal January 2017
A coupled data assimilation system for climate reanalysis: Coupled Data Assimilation for Climate Reanalysis
  • Laloyaux, Patrick; Balmaseda, Magdalena; Dee, Dick
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 142, Issue 694 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2629
journal September 2015
Spatial and temporal distribution of hailstorms in the Alpine region: a long-term, high resolution, radar-based analysis: Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Hailstorms in the Alpine Region journal March 2016
Identification of cyclone-track regimes in the North Atlantic journal April 1997
The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project
  • Compo, G. P.; Whitaker, J. S.; Sardeshmukh, P. D.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 137, Issue 654 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.776
journal January 2011
The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system journal April 2011
Changes in storm track and cyclone activity in three SRES ensemble experiments with the ECHAM5/MPI-OM1 GCM journal February 2007
Cyclone life cycle characteristics over the Northern Hemisphere in coupled GCMs journal January 2008
Simulated decadal oscillations of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in a cold climate state journal February 2009
Northern Hemisphere winter storm track trends since 1959 derived from multiple reanalysis datasets journal November 2015
Extra-tropical cyclones in the present and future climate: a review journal January 2009
Stationarity of atmospheric waves and blocking over Europe—based on a reanalysis dataset and two climate scenarios journal February 2010
Inter-comparison of extra-tropical cyclone activity in nine reanalysis datasets journal November 2016
How to quantify the resolution of surface climate by circulation types: An example for Alpine precipitation journal January 2010
Cost733cat – A database of weather and circulation type classifications journal January 2010
Tropospheric sulfur simulation and sulfate direct radiative forcing in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies general circulation model journal October 1999
Evolution of the Sun's Spectral Irradiance Since the Maunder Minimum journal August 2000
Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century journal January 2003
Perspicacious indicators of atmospheric blocking: PV INDICATORS OF BLOCKING journal March 2004
Can climate trends be calculated from reanalysis data? journal January 2004
A reconstruction of global agricultural areas and land cover for the last millennium: MILLENIUM LAND COVER RECONSTRUCTION journal August 2008
Winter 2010 in Europe: A cold extreme in a warming climate: COLD WINTER 2010 IN EUROPE journal October 2010
Was there a basis for anticipating the 2010 Russian heat wave?: THE 2010 RUSSIAN HEAT WAVE journal March 2011
A European daily high-resolution observational gridded data set of sea level pressure journal January 2011
Simulated winter circulation types in the North Atlantic and European region for preindustrial and glacial conditions: GLACIAL CIRCULATION TYPES journal August 2012
Atlantic hurricanes and climate over the past 1,500 years journal August 2009
Storm track processes and the opposing influences of climate change journal August 2016
Extreme weather caused by concurrent cyclone, front and thunderstorm occurrences journal January 2017
Characteristics of northern hemisphere blocking as determined from a long time series of observational data journal October 1983
Estimation of wind storm impacts over Western Germany under future climate conditions using a statistical—dynamical downscaling approach journal January 2010
The relationship of winter season North Atlantic blocking frequencies to extreme cold or dry spells in the ERA-40 journal January 2011
The Hot Summer of 2010: Redrawing the Temperature Record Map of Europe journal March 2011
Extreme winds at northern mid-latitudes since 1871 [Extreme winds at northern mid-latitudes since 1871] journal February 2012
Future weather types and their influence on mean and extreme climate indices for precipitation and temperature in Central Europe [Future weather types and their influence on mean and extreme climate indices for precipitation and temperature in Central Europe] journal September 2014
Climate change and circulation types in the Alpine region [Climate change and circulation types in the Alpine region] journal February 2017
The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project journal March 1996
Representation of the Earth Topography Using Spherical Harmonies journal January 1980
Northern and Southern Hemisphere Seasonal Variability of Blocking Frequency and Predictability journal September 1994
Cyclone Tracking in Different Spatial and Temporal Resolutions journal January 2000
Northern Hemisphere Extratropical Cyclones: A Comparison of Detection and Tracking Methods and Different Reanalyses journal March 2008
The NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis journal August 2010
A Comparison of Extratropical Cyclones in Recent Reanalyses ERA-Interim, NASA MERRA, NCEP CFSR, and JRA-25 journal September 2011
Feasibility of a 100-Year Reanalysis Using Only Surface Pressure Data journal February 2006
IMILAST: A Community Effort to Intercompare Extratropical Cyclone Detection and Tracking Algorithms journal April 2013
Web-Based Reanalysis Intercomparison Tools (WRIT) for Analysis and Comparison of Reanalyses and Other Datasets journal November 2014
Blocking and Rossby Wave Breaking on the Dynamical Tropopause in the Southern Hemisphere journal August 2007
MERRA: NASA’s Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications journal July 2011
Quantifying the Relevance of Cyclones for Precipitation Extremes journal October 2012
Bidimensional Diagnostics, Variability, and Trends of Northern Hemisphere Blocking journal October 2012
Comparing Cyclone Life Cycle Characteristics and Their Interannual Variability in Different Reanalyses journal August 2013
The NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2 journal March 2014
Centennial-Scale Sea Surface Temperature Analysis and Its Uncertainty journal January 2014
ERA-20C: An Atmospheric Reanalysis of the Twentieth Century journal June 2016
A Climatology of Northern Hemisphere Blocking journal March 2006
Climatology and Changes of Extratropical Cyclone Activity: Comparison of ERA-40 with NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis for 1958–2001 journal July 2006
The 2010 Pakistan Flood and Russian Heat Wave: Teleconnection of Hydrometeorological Extremes journal February 2012
Evaluation of Northern Hemisphere Blocking Climatology in the Global Environment Multiscale Model journal February 2013
Classifications of Atmospheric Circulation Patterns journal December 2008
Sensitivity of extratropical cyclone characteristics to horizontal resolution in the ECMWF model journal July 2006
Factors contributing to the summer 2003 European heatwave journal August 2004
The JRA-55 Reanalysis: General Specifications and Basic Characteristics journal January 2015
The Japanese 55-year Reanalysis “JRA-55”: An Interim Report journal January 2011
On the operational predictability of blocking journal January 1990
Introduction to the SPARC Reanalysis Intercomparison Project (S-RIP) and overview of the reanalysis systems journal January 2017
Large-scale atmospheric circulation biases and changes in global climate model simulations and their importance for climate change in Central Europe journal January 2006
Extreme climate, not extreme weather: the summer of 1816 in Geneva, Switzerland journal January 2012
An ensemble-based approach to climate reconstructions journal January 2012

Cited By (9)

Towards a more reliable historical reanalysis: Improvements for version 3 of the Twentieth Century Reanalysis system
  • Slivinski, Laura C.; Compo, Gilbert P.; Whitaker, Jeffrey S.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 145, Issue 724 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3598
journal August 2019
Impact of global atmospheric reanalyses on statistical precipitation downscaling journal September 2018
Vb Cyclones Synchronized With the Arctic‐/North Atlantic Oscillation journal March 2019
Changing seasonality of moderate and extreme precipitation events in the Alps text January 2018
The longest homogeneous series of grape harvest dates, Beaune 1354–2018, and its significance for the understanding of past and present climate journal January 2019
Changing seasonality of moderate and extreme precipitation events in the Alps journal January 2018
Impact of global atmospheric reanalyses on statistical precipitation downscaling text January 2018
Towards a more reliable historical reanalysis: Improvements for version 3 of the Twentieth Century Reanalysis system text January 2019
The longest homogeneous series of grape harvest dates, Beaune 1354–2018, and its significance for the understanding of past and present climate text January 2019

Figures / Tables (14)

Table 1(p. 3)table Table 1
TABLE 2(p. 5)table TABLE 2
FIG. 1(p. 7)figure FIG. 1
FIG. 2(p. 8)figure FIG. 2
FIG. 3(p. 10)figure FIG. 3
FIG. 4(p. 11)figure FIG. 4
Table 3(p. 12)table Table 3
FIG. 5(p. 13)figure FIG. 5
FIG. 6(p. 14)figure FIG. 6
FIG. 7(p. 15)figure FIG. 7
FIG. 8(p. 16)figure FIG. 8
FIG. 9(p. 17)figure FIG. 9
FIG. 10(p. 18)figure FIG. 10
TABLE 4(p. 19)table TABLE 4

Similar Records

Northern Hemisphere Extratropical Cyclone Activity in the Twentieth Century Reanalysis Version 3 (20CRv3) and Its Relationship with Continental Extreme Temperatures
Journal Article · Fri Jul 22 20:00:00 EDT 2022 · Atmosphere (Basel) · OSTI ID:1906691
Final Technical Report for Collaborative Research: Developing and Implementing Ocean-Atmosphere Reanalyses for Climate Applications (OARCA)
Technical Report · Tue Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · OSTI ID:1433384
The Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project
Journal Article · Fri Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2010 · Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society · OSTI ID:1564728

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Blocking
Climate models
Extratropical cyclones
Interannual variability
Reanalysis data