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Pacific Modulation of the North Atlantic Storm Track Response to Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events
Author(s) -
AfarganGerstman Hilla,
Domeisen Daniela I. V.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl085007
Subject(s) - storm track , climatology , north atlantic oscillation , storm , troposphere , geology , atlantic hurricane , sudden stratospheric warming , atlantic multidecadal oscillation , jet (fluid) , oceanography , polar vortex , physics , thermodynamics
Sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) events have been suggested to be followed by a surface impact, though this response varies between events. Using reanalysis data, we identify two types of tropospheric responses to SSWs: Two thirds of the SSW events are dominated by a zonally symmetric tropospheric response with an equatorward shift of the jet in the Atlantic, consistent with the canonical SSW response in the form of a negative signature of the North Atlantic Oscillation. For the remaining third of SSW events, a zonally asymmetric response is found, associated with a poleward shift of the jet in the Atlantic. The Pacific is found to contribute to the sign of the North Atlantic response, as synoptic wave propagation from the Eastern Pacific links the Pacific and Atlantic storm tracks for both equatorward and poleward jet responses.