Abstract
Through an agglomerative hierarchical clustering method, cold surges over East Asia are classified into two distinct types based on the spatial pattern of the geopotential height anomalies at 300 hPa. One is the wave-train type that is associated with developing large-scale waves across the Eurasian continent. The other is the blocking type whose occurrence accompanies subarctic blocking. During the wave-train cold surge, growing baroclinic waves induce a southeastward expansion of the Siberian High and strong northerly winds over East Asia. Blocking cold surge, on the other hand, is associated with a southward expansion of the Siberian High and northeasterly winds inherent to a height dipole consisting of the subarctic blocking and the East Asian coastal trough. The blocking cold surge tends to be more intense and last longer compared to the wave-train type. The wave-train cold surge is associated with the formation of a negative upper tropospheric height anomaly southeast of Greenland approximately 12 days before the surge occurrence. Further analysis of isentropic potential vorticity reveals that this height anomaly could originate from the lower stratosphere over the North Atlantic. Cold surge of the blocking type occurs with an amplifying positive geopotential and a negative potential vorticity anomaly over the Arctic and the northern Eurasia in stratosphere. These anomalies resemble the stratospheric signature of a negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation. This stratospheric feature is further demonstrated by the observation that the blocking type cold surge occurs more often when the Arctic Oscillation is in its negative phase.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ambaum MHP, Hoskins BJ (2002) The NAO troposphere-stratosphere connection. J Clim 15(14):1969–1978
Baldwin MP, Dunkerton TJ (1999) Propagation of the Arctic Oscillation from the stratosphere to the troposphere. J Geophys Res-Atmos 104(D24):30937–30946
Baldwin MP, Stephenson DB, Thompson DWJ, Dunkerton TJ, Charlton AJ, O’Neill A (2003) Stratospheric memory and skill of extended-range weather forecasts. Science 301(5633):636–640
Black RX (2002) Stratospheric forcing of surface climate in the Arctic Oscillation. J Clim 15(3):268–277
Campa J, Wernli H (2012) A PV perspective on the vertical structure of mature midlatitude cyclones in the northern hemisphere. J Atmos Sci 69(2):725–740. doi:10.1175/Jas-D-11-050.1
Chang EKM, Lee SY, Swanson KL (2002) Storm track dynamics. J Clim 15(16):2163–2183
Chen TC (2002) A North Pacific short-wave train during the extreme phases of ENSO. J Clim 15(17):2359–2376
Chen TC, Yen MC, Huang WR, Gallus WA (2002) An East Asian cold surge: case study. Mon Weather Rev 130(9):2271–2290
Chen TC, Huang WR, Yoon J (2004) Interannual variation of the East Asian cold surge activity. J Clim 17(2):401–413
Christiansen B (2001) Downward propagation of zonal mean zonal wind anomalies from the stratosphere to the troposphere: model and reanalysis. J Geophys Res-Atmos 106(D21):27307–27322
Cohen J, Saito K, Entekhabi D (2001) The role of the Siberian high in Northern Hemisphere climate variability. Geophys Res Lett 28(2):299–302
Davis CA (1992) Piecewise potential vorticity inversion. J Atmos Sci 49(16):1397–1411
Ding Y, Krishnamurti TN (1987) Heat-budget of the Siberian high and the winter monsoon. Mon Weather Rev 115(10):2428–2449
Gong DY, Ho CH (2002) The Siberian high and climate change over middle to high latitude Asia. Theor Appl Climatol 72(1–2):1–9
Hartley DE, Villarin JT, Black RX, Davis CA (1998) A new perspective on the dynamical link between the stratosphere and troposphere. Nature 391(6666):471–474
Hoskins B (1997) A potential vorticity view of synoptic development. Meteorol Appl 4(4):325–334. doi:10.1017/s1350482797000716
Hoskins B, Berrisford P (1988) A potential vorticity perspective of the storm of 15–16 October 1987. Weather 43(3):122–129. doi:10.1002/j.1477-8696.1988.tb03890.x
Hoskins BJ, Mcintyre ME, Robertson AW (1985) On the use and significance of isentropic potential vorticity maps. Q J Roy Meteor Soc 111(470):877–946
Jeong J-H, Ho C-H (2005) Changes in occurrence of cold surges over East Asia in association with Arctic Oscillation. Geophys Res Lett 32:L14704. doi:10.1029/2005GL023024
Jeong J-H, Kim B-M, Ho C-H, Chen D, Lim G-H (2006) Stratospheric origin of cold surge occurrence in East Asia. Geophys Res Lett 33:L14710. doi:10.1029/2006GL026607
Jeong J-H, Kim B-M, Ho C-H, Noh Y-H (2008) Systematic variation in wintertime precipitation in East Asia by MJO-induced extratropical vertical motion. J Clim 21(4):788–801. doi:10.1175/2007jcli1801.1
Joung CH, Hitchman MH (1982) On the role of successive downstream development in East Asian Polar air outbreaks. Mon Weather Rev 110(9):1224–1237
Kalkstein LS, Tan GR, Skindlov JA (1987) An evaluation of 3 clustering procedures for use in synoptic climatological classification. J Clim Appl Meteorol 26(6):717–730
Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Kistler R, Collins W, Deaven D, Gandin L, Iredell M, Saha S, White G, Woollen J, Zhu Y, Chelliah M, Ebisuzaki W, Higgins W, Janowiak J, Mo KC, Ropelewski C, Wang J, Leetmaa A, Reynolds R, Jenne R, Joseph D (1996) The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 77(3):437–471
Kim B-M, Jeong J-H, Kim S-J (2009) Investigation of stratospheric precursor for the East Asian cold surge using the potential vorticity inversion technique. Asia-Pac J Atmos Sci 45(4):513–522
Lau NC, Lau KM (1984) The structure and energetics of midlatitude disturbances accompanying cold-air outbreaks over East-Asia. Mon Weather Rev 112(7):1309–1327
Lu FC, Juang HMH, Liao CC (2007) A numerical case study of the passage of a cold surge across Taiwan. Meteorol Atmos Phys 95:27–52. doi:10.1007/s00703-006-0192-9
Martius O, Polvani LM, Davies HC (2009) Blocking precursors to stratospheric sudden warming events. Geophys Res Lett 36:L14806. doi:10.1029/2009gl038776
Park T-W, Jeong J-H, Ho C-H, Kim S-J (2008) Characteristics of atmospheric circulation associated with cold surge occurrences in East Asia: a case study during 2005/06 winter. Adv Atmos Sci 25(5):791–804. doi:10.1007/s00376-008-0791-0
Park T-W, Ho C-H, Yang S, Jeong J-H (2010) Influences of Arctic Oscillation and Madden-Julian Oscillation on cold surges and heavy snowfalls over Korea: a case study for the winter of 2009–2010. J Geophys Res-Atmos 115:D23122. doi:10.1029/2010JD014794
Park T-W, Ho C-H, Yang S (2011) Relationship between the Arctic Oscillation and Cold Surges over East Asia. J Clim 24(1):68–83. doi:10.1175/2010jcli3529.1
Pelly JL, Hoskins BJ (2003) A new perspective on blocking. J Atmos Sci 60(5):743–755
Plumb RA (1985) On the three-dimensional propagation of stationary waves. J Atmos Sci 42(3):217–229
Rex DF (1950) Blocking action in the middle troposphere and its effect upon regional climate. Tellus 2(3):196–211. doi:10.1111/j.2153-3490.1950.tb00331.x
Takaya K, Nakamura H (2005a) Mechanisms of intraseasonal amplification of the cold Siberian high. J Atmos Sci 62(12):4423–4440
Takaya K, Nakamura H (2005b) Geographical dependence of upper-level blocking formation associated with intraseasonal amplification of the Siberian high. J Atmos Sci 62(12):4441–4449
Tang Y, Lin H, Derome J, Tippett MK (2007) A predictability measure applied to seasonal predictions of the Arctic Oscillation. J Clim 20(18):4733–4750. doi:10.1175/Jcli4276.1
Thompson DWJ, Wallace JM (1998) The Arctic Oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields. Geophys Res Lett 25(9):1297–1300
Yang S, Lau KM, Kim KM (2002) Variations of the East Asian jet stream and Asian-Pacific-American winter climate anomalies. J Clim 15(3):306–325
Zhang Y, Wang WC (1997) Model-simulated northern winter cyclone and anticyclone activity under a greenhouse warming scenario. J Clim 10(7):1616–1634
Zhang Y, Sperber KR, Boyle JS (1997) Climatology and interannual variation of the East Asian winter monsoon: results from the 1979–95 NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. Mon Weather Rev 125(10):2605–2619
Acknowledgments
The daily-mean SAT at Chinese and Korean stations used in this study were provided by the China Meteorology Administration and the Korea Meteorology Administration. The Georgia Tech authors (Deng and Park) were supported by DOE Office of Science Regional and Global Climate Modeling (RGCM) program under Grant DE-SC0005596 and the NASA Energy and Water Cycle Study (NEWS) under grant NNX09AJ36G. The SNU author (Ho) was funded by the National Research Foundation of the Korean government (NRF 2009-0093458) and Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program under Grant CATER 2012-2040. This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the NRF funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Tech (NRF-2012R1A6A3A03038637). The study was performed during the first author’s Ph.D. course at the SNU, Korea and finalized at the Georgia Tech.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Park, TW., Ho, CH. & Deng, Y. A synoptic and dynamical characterization of wave-train and blocking cold surge over East Asia. Clim Dyn 43, 753–770 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1817-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1817-6