Are the Different Eddy Metrics Quantifying the Winter North Pacific Storm Track Consistent With Each Other?

Abstract

AbstractHistorical simulations from twenty‐nine Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models are used to investigate the consistency among different eddy metrics characterizing the winter North Pacific storm track (WNPST). All CMIP6 models can reproduce the basic climatological characteristics of the WNPST. Results show that, out of the metrics studies, only the upper‐tropospheric filtered meridional wind variance () is significantly correlated with the model grid spacing. The climatological amplitudes of different eddy metrics are consistent with each other, except for the consistency between the upper‐tropospheric and lower‐tropospheric meridional eddy heat flux and that between the middle‐tropospheric eddy kinetic energy and filtered sea level pressure variance (). The strength trends of different eddy metrics are consistent with each other except for upper‐tropospheric and . The meridional migration trends are consistent among different eddy metrics excluding . Given that the sensitivity to horizontal resolution, climatological amplitude, strength trend and meridional migration trend of different Eulerian eddy metrics may exhibit inconsistency, the use of multiple eddy metrics to increase the reliability of the results is suggested.