A34E:
Extratropical Large-Scale Atmospheric Circulation Variability I


Submit an Abstract to this Session


Session ID#: 58332

Session Description:
The extratropical atmospheric circulation is characterized by large-scale variability patterns such as blocking events, large-amplitude/quasi-stationary planetary waves, and annular modes. The midlatitude variability is important to the extratropical weather (and weather extremes), as well as the interaction of the extratropical troposphere with the tropics, stratosphere, ocean, and cryosphere. While widely studied, many questions remain unanswered about the dynamics, predictability, and climate projections of the extratropical atmospheric variability, and current weather/climate models have difficulties faithfully reproducing some of the observed behavior.


The goal of this session is to synthesize observational, hierarchical modeling, and theoretical studies of various aspects of this variability such as the associated dynamics, sources of predictability, responses to climate change, and connections with weather extremes. A deeper understanding will improve weather predictions on sub-seasonal and longer timescales, and help with interpreting regional responses to climate change. These are active areas of research with significant scientific and socio-economic impacts.

Primary Convener:  Pedram Hassanzadeh, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
Conveners:  Ding Ma, Columbia University of New York, Earth Institute, Palisades, NY, United States; Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, Elizabeth A Barnes, Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Science, Fort Collins, United States and Aditi Sheshadri, Columbia University of New York, Palisades, United States
Primary Liaison:  Pedram Hassanzadeh, Rice University, Houston, TX, United States
Chairs:  Pedram Hassanzadeh, Rice University, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Houston, United States and Aditi Sheshadri, Columbia University of New York, Palisades, United States
OSPA Liaison:  Pedram Hassanzadeh, Rice University, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Houston, United States

Cross-Listed:
  • GC - Global Environmental Change
  • NG - Nonlinear Geophysics
Index Terms:

3305 Climate change and variability [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
3319 General circulation [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
3337 Global climate models [ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES]
4313 Extreme events [NATURAL HAZARDS]

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

Which Burners Heat the Arctic Atmosphere? (Invited) (383429)
Paul J Kushner and Robert Andrew Fajber, University of Toronto, Physics, Toronto, ON, Canada
The Forcing of Preferred Positions in the North Atlantic Eddy-Driven Jet from Above, Below, and from the Future (Invited) (343233)
Rachel H White, University of Washington, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Seattle, United States, Casey Hilgenbrink, University of Washington Seattle Campus, Atmospheric Sciences, Seattle, WA, United States and Aditi Sheshadri, Columbia University of New York, Palisades, United States
Sensitivity and Feedback in the Zonal Flow Response to Climate Forcing in a Hierarchy of Atmospheric Models (441498)
Gang Chen, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States and Chengji Liu, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Thermodynamic Control on the Poleward shift of the Extratropical Jet in Climate Change Simulations (455264)
Ying Li, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States, David W J Thompson, Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Science, Fort Collins, CO, United States, Sandrine Bony, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, Paris, France and Timothy M Merlis, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Forced Summer Stationary Waves: The Opposing Effects of Direct Radiative Forcing and Sea Surface Warming (367469)
Hugh Baker1, Tim Woollings2, Cheikh Oumar Mbengue3, Myles Robert Allen4, Christopher O'Reilly1, Hideo Shiogama5 and Sparrow Sarah6, (1)University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, (2)University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Oxford, United Kingdom, (3)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)University of Oxford, ECI/School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford, United Kingdom, (5)National Institute for Environmental Studies, Earth System Division, Tsukuba, Japan, (6)Oxford e-Research Centre, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
Atmospheric Influence on Temperature Distributions and Extremes under Global Warming: Insights from an Idealized Model (422281)
Marianna Linz, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States, Gang Chen, University of California Los Angeles, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, CA, United States and Zeyuan Hu, Harvard University, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Cambridge, MA, United States
The subseasonal extratropical response to El Niño/Southern Oscillation (435213)
Steven B Feldstein, Pennsylvania State University Main Campus, University Park, PA, United States, Michael Goss, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, Sukyoung Lee, Penn State University, University Park, PA, United States and Noah S Diffenbaugh, Stanford University, Earth System Science, Stanford, United States
Diagnosing tropical and extratropical sources of Pacific-North American pattern growth (421152)
Stephanie A Henderson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Madison, United States, Daniel Vimont, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States and Matthew Newman, University of Colorado/CIRES and NOAA/PSL, Boulder, United States

See more of: Atmospheric Sciences