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Atmospheric Circulation Response to Heat Flux Anomalies in a Two-Dimensional Baroclinic Model of the Atmosphere

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Abstract

The response of large-scale atmospheric circulation to the anomalous Barents and Kara sea ice-free surface heating, which has been observed over the past two decades, is considered. For this purpose, a simplified two-dimensional baroclinic atmospheric model obtained by averaging hydrothermodynamic equations over height is used, as well as its two-layer analogue with the effect of anomalous heating and, hence, of horizontal baroclinicity being concentrated within the surface-adjacent 1- to 2-km-thick atmospheric layer, which fits Arctic conditions more closely. Quasi-geostrophic approximations are derived for both models; for a single-layer model (in the adiabatic and inviscid approximation), the formulation is also given in terms of Nambu mechanics. Both models demonstrate the appearance of a center of increased surface air temperature over the area of anomalous heating; a slight decrease in surface pressure there; and, finally, anticyclonic circulation in the bulk of the atmosphere. The model results are shown to be extremely sensitive to the parameterization of the Ekman boundary layer.

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Notes

  1. The enhancement of blocking effects (an increase in intensity, number, and sizes) in winter months over continents (i.e., cold winters there) should in general be expected with global warming (particularly, because of increased СО2 in the atmosphere) [3].

  2. Generalization of Eqs. (6), (7), and (9) to the case of wind-velocity variability with height (for a two-parameter (over height) specification of the velocity profile) is given in [24]. A filtering approximation to these equations (using the nonlinear equation of geostrophic balance) is also presented there, but with no Ekman friction, which plays a key role in the given work.

  3. Note that a similar result was obtained in an idealized theoretical model of convection in a rotating fluid [29].

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I thank V.N. Krupchatnikov and I.I. Mokhov for our helpful discussions. Special thanks to M.G. Akperov for providing illustrations to the paper (Figs. 1a, 1b).

Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant no. 18-47-06203.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119017, Moscow, Russia

    M. V. Kurgansky

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Correspondence to M. V. Kurgansky.

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In 2019, Obukhov’s outstanding work [11] turned 70. The author would be happy if this paper could be published on this anniversary.

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Translated by N. Tret’yakova

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Kurgansky, M.V. Atmospheric Circulation Response to Heat Flux Anomalies in a Two-Dimensional Baroclinic Model of the Atmosphere. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 56, 33–42 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433820010053

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