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

doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0350.1

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 »« less

Authors:

Rohrer, Marco ^[1]; Brönnimann, Stefan ^[1]; Martius, Olivia ^[1]; Raible, Christoph C. ^[1]; Wild, Martin ^[2]; Compo, Gilbert P. ^[3]

Univ. of Bern (Switzerland)
ETH Zurich (Switzerland)
Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab.

Publication Date:: 2018-03-20

Research Org.:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); 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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DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0350.1

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Cited by: 10 works

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Figures / Tables:

Table 1: Details about the reanalyses used in this study.

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Works referencing / citing this record:

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

Abstract

Citation Formats

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