Optimal perturbations triggering weather regime transitions: Onset of blocking and strong zonal flow

Abstract

In this paper, the approach proposed by Mu and Jiang (2008) to obtain the optimal perturbations for triggering blocking (BL) onset is generalized to seek the optimal perturbations triggering onset of the strong zonal flow (SZF) regime. The BL and SZF regimes are characterized by the same dipole-like anomaly pattern superposed on the climatological flow, but with opposite sign. The results show that this method is also superior at finding the initial optimal perturbations triggering onset of the SZF regime, especially in the medium range.