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

Abstract

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 fewmore » 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.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
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  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.
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1544332
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Climate
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 31; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Blocking; Extratropical cyclones; Climate models; Reanalysis data; Interannual variability

Citation Formats

Rohrer, Marco, Brönnimann, Stefan, Martius, Olivia, Raible, Christoph C., Wild, Martin, and Compo, Gilbert P. Representation of Extratropical Cyclones, Blocking Anticyclones, and Alpine Circulation Types in Multiple Reanalyses and Model Simulations. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0350.1.
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Rohrer, Marco, Brönnimann, Stefan, Martius, Olivia, Raible, Christoph C., Wild, Martin, & Compo, Gilbert P. Representation of Extratropical Cyclones, Blocking Anticyclones, and Alpine Circulation Types in Multiple Reanalyses and Model Simulations. United States. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0350.1.
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Rohrer, Marco, Brönnimann, Stefan, Martius, Olivia, Raible, Christoph C., Wild, Martin, and Compo, Gilbert P. Tue . "Representation of Extratropical Cyclones, Blocking Anticyclones, and Alpine Circulation Types in Multiple Reanalyses and Model Simulations". United States. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0350.1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1544332.
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@article{osti_1544332,
title = {Representation of Extratropical Cyclones, Blocking Anticyclones, and Alpine Circulation Types in Multiple Reanalyses and Model Simulations},
author = {Rohrer, Marco and Brönnimann, Stefan and Martius, Olivia and Raible, Christoph C. and Wild, Martin and Compo, Gilbert P.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0350.1},
journal = {Journal of Climate},
number = 8,
volume = 31,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {3}
}
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Journal Article:
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Publisher's Version of Record
DOI:  10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0350.1
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Cited by: 16 works
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Figures / Tables:

Table 1 Table 1: Details about the reanalyses used in this study.
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Works referencing / citing this record:

Vb Cyclones Synchronized With the Arctic‐/North Atlantic Oscillation
journal, March 2019

  • Hofstätter, M.; Blöschl, G.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 124, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018jd029420

Vb Cyclones Synchronized With the Arctic‐/North Atlantic Oscillation
journal, March 2019

  • Hofstätter, M.; Blöschl, G.
  • Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 124, Issue 6
  • DOI: 10.1029/2018jd029420

Towards a more reliable historical reanalysis: Improvements for version 3 of the Twentieth Century Reanalysis system
journal, August 2019

  • Slivinski, Laura C.; Compo, Gilbert P.; Whitaker, Jeffrey S.
  • Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Vol. 145, Issue 724
  • DOI: 10.1002/qj.3598

Impact of global atmospheric reanalyses on statistical precipitation downscaling
journal, September 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

  • Labbé, Thomas; Pfister, Christian; Brönnimann, Stefan
  • Climate of the Past, Vol. 15, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.5194/cp-15-1485-2019

Changing seasonality of moderate and extreme precipitation events in the Alps
journal, January 2018

  • Brönnimann, Stefan; Rajczak, Jan; Fischer, Erich M.
  • Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, Vol. 18, Issue 7
  • DOI: 10.5194/nhess-18-2047-2018
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    Figures / Tables found in this record:

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