Zonal Jets Research Articles

Dynamic Europa ocean shows transient Taylor columns and convection driven by ice melting and salinity

The deep (~100 km) ocean of Europa, Jupiter’s moon, covered by a thick icy shell, is one of the most probable places in the solar system to find extraterrestrial life. Yet, its ocean dynamics and its interaction with the ice cover have received little attention. Previous studies suggested that Europa’s ocean is turbulent using a global model and taking into account non-hydrostatic effects and the full Coriolis force. Here we add critical elements, including consistent top and bottom heating boundary conditions and the effects of icy shell melting and freezing on ocean salinity. We find weak stratification that is dominated by salinity variations. The ocean exhibits strong transient convection, eddies, and zonal jets. Transient motions organize in Taylor columns parallel to Europa’s axis of rotation, are static inside of the tangent cylinder and propagate equatorward outside the cylinder. The meridional oceanic heat transport is intense enough to result in a nearly uniform ice thickness, that is expected to be observable in future missions.

The Problem of Diagnosing Jet Waveguidability in the Presence of Large-Amplitude Eddies

AbstractThe waveguidability of an upper-tropospheric zonal jet quantifies its propensity to duct Rossby waves in the zonal direction. This property has played a central role in previous attempts to explain large wave amplitudes and the subsequent occurrence of extreme weather. In these studies, waveguidability was diagnosed with the help of ray tracing arguments using the zonal average of the observed flow as the relevant background state. Here, it is argued that this method is problematic both conceptually and mathematically. The issue is investigated in the framework of the nondivergent barotropic model. This model allows the straightforward computation of an alternative “zonalized” background state, which is obtained through conservative symmetrization of potential vorticity contours and that is argued to be superior to the zonal average. Using an idealized prototypical flow configuration with large-amplitude eddies, it is shown that the two different choices for the background state yield very different results; in particular, the zonal-mean background state diagnoses a zonal waveguide, while the zonalized background state does not. This result suggests that the existence of a waveguide in the zonal-mean background state is a consequence of, rather than a precondition for, large wave amplitudes, and it would mean that the direction of causality is opposite to the usual argument. The analysis is applied to two heatwave episodes from summer 2003 and 2010, yielding essentially the same result. It is concluded that previous arguments about the role of waveguidability for extreme weather need to be carefully reevaluated to prevent misinterpretation in the future.

A Quantitative Scaling Theory for Meridional Heat Transport in Planetary Atmospheres and Oceans

AbstractThe meridional temperature profile of the upper layers of planetary atmospheres is set through a balance between differential radiative heating by a nearby star, or by intrinsic heat fluxes emanating from the deep interior, and the redistribution of that heat across latitudes by turbulent flows. These flows spontaneously arise through baroclinic instability of the meridional temperature gradients maintained by the forcing. When planetary curvature is neglected, this turbulence takes the form of coherent vortices that mix the meridional temperature profiles. However, the curvature of the planet favors the emergence of Rossby waves and zonal jets that restrict the meridional wandering of the fluid columns, thereby reducing the mixing efficiency across latitudes. A similar situation arises in the ocean, where the baroclinic instability of zonal currents leads to enhanced meridional heat transport by a turbulent flow consisting of vortices and zonal jets. A recent scaling theory for the turbulent heat transport by vortices is extended to include the impact of planetary curvature, in the framework of the two‐layer quasi‐geostrophic beta‐plane model. This leads to a quantitative parameterization providing the meridional temperature profile in terms of the externally imposed heat flux in an idealized model of planetary atmospheres and oceans. In addition, it provides a quantitative prediction for the emergent criticality, that is, the degree of instability in a canonical model of planetary atmosphere or ocean.

Favorable Monsoon Environment over Eastern Africa for Subsequent Tropical Cyclogenesis of African Easterly Waves

AbstractEastern Africa is a common region of African easterly wave (AEW) onset and AEW early life. How the large-scale environment over East Africa relates to the likelihood of an AEW subsequently undergoing tropical cyclogenesis in a climatology has not been documented. This study addresses the following hypothesis: AEWs that undergo tropical cyclogenesis (i.e., developing AEWs) initiate and propagate under a more favorable monsoon large-scale environment over eastern Africa when compared with nondeveloping AEWs. Using a 21-yr August–September (1990–2010) climatology of AEWs, differences in the large-scale environment between developers and nondevelopers are identified and are proposed to be used as key predictors of subsequent tropical cyclone (TC) formation and could inform tropical cyclogenesis prediction. TC precursors when compared with nondeveloping AEWs experience an anomalously active West African monsoon, stronger northerly flow, more intense zonal Somali jet, anomalous convergence over the Marrah Mountains (region of AEW forcing), and a more intense and elongated African easterly jet. These large-scale conditions are linked to near-trough attributes of developing AEWs that favor more moisture ingestion, vertically aligned circulation, a stronger initial 850-hPa vortex, a deeper wave pouch, and arguably more AEW and mesoscale convective systems interactions. AEWs that initiate over eastern Africa and cross the west coast of Africa are more likely to undergo tropical cyclogenesis than those initiating over central or West Africa. Developing AEWs are more likely than nondeveloping AEWs to be southern-track AEWs.

Seasonal and regional signatures of ENSO in upper tropospheric jet characteristics from reanalyses

AbstractThe relationship of upper tropospheric jet variability to El Niño / Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in reanalysis datasets is analyzed for 1979–2018, revealing robust regional and seasonal variability. Tropical jets associated with monsoons and the Walker circulation are weaker and the zonal mean subtropical jet shifts equatorward in both hemispheres during El Niño, consistent with previous findings. Regional and seasonal variations are analyzed separately for subtropical and polar jets. The subtropical jet shifts poleward during El Niño over the NH eastern Pacific in DJF, and in some SH regions in MAMand SON. Subtropical jet altitudes increase during El Niño, with significant changes in the zonal mean in the NH and during summer/fall in the SH. Though zonal mean polar jet correlations with ENSO are rarely significant, robust regional/seasonal changes occur: The SH polar jet shifts equatorward during El Niño over Asia and the western Pacific in DJF, and poleward over the eastern Pacific in JJA and SON. Polar jets are weaker (stronger) during El Niño in the western (eastern) hemisphere, especially in the SH; conversely, subtropical jets are stronger (weaker) in the western (eastern) hemisphere during El Niño in winter and spring; these opposing changes, along with an anticorrelation between subtropical and polar jet windspeed, reinforce subtropical/polar jet strength differences during El Niño, and suggest ENSO-related covariability of the jets. ENSO-related jet latitude, altitude, and windspeed changes can reach 4(3)°, 0.6(0.3) km, and 6(3) ms−1, respectively, for the subtropical (polar) jets.

A Synoptic View of the Onset of the Mid-Latitude QBO Signal

AbstractThe extratropical effect of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO), known as the Holton-Tan effect, is manifest as aweaker, warmer winter Arctic polar vortex during the east QBO phase. While previous studies have shown that the extratropical QBO signal is caused by the modified propagation of planetary waves in the stratosphere, the mechanism dominating the onset and seasonal development of the Holton-Tan effects remains unclear. Here, the governing wave-mean flow dynamics of the early winter extratropical QBO signal onset and its reversibility is investigated on a synoptic timescale with a finite-amplitude diagnostic using reanalysis and a chemistry-climate model. The extratropical QBO signal onset in October is found to primarily result from modulated stratospheric life-cycles of wave pulses entering the stratosphere from the troposphere, rather than from a modulation of their tropospheric wave source. A comprehensive analysis of the wave activity budget during fall, when the stratospheric winter polar vortex starts forming and waves start propagating up into the stratosphere, shows significant differences. During the east QBO phase, the deceleration of the mid-high latitude stratospheric zonal mean jet by the upward propagating wave pulses is less reversible, due to stronger dissipation processes, while during the west phase, a more reversible deceleration of the main polar vortex is found owing to the waves being dissipated at lower latitudes, accompanied by a weak but different response of the tropospheric subtropical jet. From this synoptic wave-event viewpoint, the early season onset of the Holton-Tan effect results from the cumulative effect of the QBO dependent wave-induced deceleration during the life cycle of individual upward wave pulses.

Intransitive Atmosphere Dynamics Leading to Persistent Hot–Dry or Cold–Wet European Summers

AbstractPersistent hot–dry or cold–wet summer weather can have significant impacts on agriculture, health, and the environment. For northwestern Europe, these weather regimes are typically linked to, respectively, blocked or zonal jet stream states. The fundamental dynamics underlying these circulation states are still poorly understood. Edward Lorenz postulated that summer circulation may be either fully or almost intransitive, implying that part of the phase space (capturing circulation variability) cannot be reached within one specific summer. If true, this would have major implications for the predictability of summer weather and our understanding of the drivers of interannual variability of summer weather. Here, we test the two Lorenz hypotheses (i.e., fully or almost intransitive) for European summer circulation, capitalizing on a newly available very large ensemble (2000 years) of present-day climate data in the fully coupled global climate model EC-Earth. Using self-organizing maps, we quantify the phase space of summer circulation and the trajectories through phase space in unprecedented detail. We show that, based on Markov assumptions, the summer circulation is strongly dependent on its initial state in early summer with the atmospheric memory ranging from 28 days up to ~45 days. The memory is particularly long if the initial state is either a blocked or a zonal flow state. Furthermore, we identify two groups of summers that are characterized by distinctly different trajectories through phase space, and that prefer either a blocked or zonal circulation state, respectively. These results suggest that intransitivity is indeed a fundamental property of the atmosphere and an important driver of interannual variability.

The Release of Inertial Instability Near an Idealized Zonal Jet

AbstractInertial instability is a hydrodynamic instability that occurs in strong anticyclonic flow and is typically diagnosed by negative absolute vorticity in the Northern Hemisphere. As such, inertial instability is often observed on the anticyclonic‐shear side of jet streams, yet the release of the instability in this environment is still poorly understood. We construct an idealized midlatitude zonal jet and perform two experiments: one control simulation with no inertial instability and one experiment with inertial instability simulating its release. We find that the release of the instability results in meridional wind perturbations of up to 7 m s−1 over 200 km that persist for several days, in addition to radiating inertia–gravity waves several hundreds of kilometers away from the unstable region. Furthermore, these perturbations instigate light–moderate occurrences of clear‐air turbulence around the unstable region that persist for up to 12 h.

Characteristics of Long-Duration Heavy Precipitation Events along the West Coast of the United States

AbstractProlonged periods (e.g., several days or more) of heavy precipitation can result in sustained high-impact flooding. Herein, an investigation of long-duration heavy precipitation events (HPEs), defined as periods comprising ≥3 days with precipitation exceeding the climatological 95th percentile, is conducted for 1979–2019 for the U.S. West Coast, specifically Northern California. An objective flow-based categorization method is applied to identify principal large-scale flow patterns for the events. Four categories are identified and examined through composite analyses and case studies. Two of the categories are characterized by a strong zonal jet stream over the eastern North Pacific, while the other two are characterized by atmospheric blocking over the central North Pacific and the Bering Sea–Alaska region, respectively. The composites and case studies demonstrate that the flow patterns for the HPEs tend to remain in place for several days, maintaining strong baroclinicity and promoting occurrences of multiple cyclones in rapid succession near the West Coast. The successive cyclones result in persistent water vapor flux and forcing for ascent over Northern California, sustaining heavy precipitation. For the zonal jet patterns, cyclones affecting the West Coast tend to occur in the poleward jet exit region in association with cyclonic Rossby wave breaking. For the blocking patterns, cyclones tend to occur in association with anticyclonic Rossby wave breaking on the downstream flank of the block. For Bering Sea–Alaska blocking cases, cyclones can move into this region in conjunction with cyclonically breaking waves that extend into the eastern North Pacific from the upstream flank of the block.

Argo-Two Decades: Global Oceanography, Revolutionized.

Argo, an international, global observational array of nearly 4,000 autonomous robotic profiling floats, each measuring ocean temperature and salinity from 0 to 2,000 m on nominal 10-day cycles, has revolutionized physical oceanography. Argo started at the turn of the millennium,growing out of advances in float technology over the previous several decades. After two decades, with well over 2 million profiles made publicly available in real time, Argo data have underpinned more than 4,000 scientific publications and improved countless nowcasts, forecasts, and projections. We review a small subset of those accomplishments, such as elucidating remarkable zonal jets spanning the deep tropical Pacific; increasing understanding of ocean eddies and the roles of mixing in shaping water masses and circulation; illuminating interannual to decadal ocean variability; quantifying, in concert with satellite data, contributions of ocean warming and ice melting to sea level rise; improving coupled numerical weather predictions; and underpinning decadal climate forecasts.

Role of Surface Gravity Waves in Aquaplanet Ocean Climates.

We present a set of idealized numerical experiments of a solstitial aquaplanet ocean and examine the thermodynamic and dynamic implications of surface gravity waves (SGWs) upon its mean state. The aquaplanet's oceanic circulation is dominated by an equatorial zonal jet and four Ekman driven meridional overturning circulation (MOC) cells aligned with the westerly atmospheric jet streams and easterly trade winds in both hemispheres. Including SGW parameterization (representing modulations of air‐sea momentum fluxes, Langmuir circulation, and Stokes‐Coriolis force) increases mixed layer vertical momentum diffusivity by ∼40% and dampens surface momentum fluxes by ∼4%. The correspondingly dampened MOC impacts the oceanic density structure to 1 km depth by lessening the large‐scale advective transports of heat and salt, freshening the equatorial latitudes (where evaporation minus precipitation [E − P] is negative) and increasing salinity in the subtropics (where E − P is positive) by ∼1%. The midlatitude pycnocline in both hemispheres is deepened by the inclusion of SGWs. Including SGWs into the aquaplanet ocean model acts to increase mixed layer depth by ∼10% (up to 20% in the wintertime in midlatitudes), decrease vertical shear in the upper 200 m and alter local midlatitude buoyancy frequency. Generally, the impacts of SGWs upon the aquaplanet ocean are found to be consistent across cooler and warmer climates. We suggest that the implications of these simulations could be relevant to understanding future projections of SGW climate, exoplanetary oceans, and the dynamics of the Southern Ocean mixed layer.

Multistability and Rare Spontaneous Transitions in Barotropic β-Plane Turbulence

AbstractWe demonstrate that turbulent zonal jets, analogous to Jovian ones, which are quasi stationary, are actually metastable. After extremely long times, they randomly switch to new configurations with a different number of jets. The genericity of this phenomenon suggests that most quasi-stationary turbulent planetary atmospheres might have many climates and attractors for fixed values of the external forcing parameters. A key message is that this situation will usually not be detected by simply running the numerical models, because of the extremely long mean transition time to change from one climate to another. To study such phenomena, we need to use specific tools: rare-event algorithms and large-deviation theory. With these tools, we make a full statistical mechanics study of a classical barotropic beta-plane quasigeostrophic model. It exhibits robust bimodality with abrupt transitions. We show that new jets spontaneously nucleate from westward jets. The numerically computed mean transition time is consistent with an Arrhenius law showing an exponential decrease of the probability as the Ekman dissipation decreases. This phenomenology is controlled by rare noise-driven paths called instantons. Moreover, we compute the saddles of the corresponding effective dynamics. For the dynamics of states with three alternating jets, we uncover an unexpectedly rich dynamics governed by the symmetric group of permutations, with two distinct families of instantons, which is a surprise for a system where everything seemed stationary in the hundreds of previous simulations of this model. We discuss the future generalization of our approach to more realistic models.

Stable stratification promotes multiple zonal jets in a turbulent jovian dynamo model

The ongoing NASA's Juno mission puts new constraints on the internal dynamics of Jupiter. Data gathered by its onboard magnetometer reveal a dipole-dominated surface magnetic field accompanied by strong localised magnetic flux patches. The gravity measurements indicate that the fierce surface zonal jets extend several thousands of kilometers below the cloud level before rapidly decaying below 0.94 − 0.96RJ, RJ being the mean Jovian radius at the one bar level. Jupiter's internal structure can be grossly decomposed in two parts: (i) an outer layer filled with a mixture of molecular hydrogen and helium where the zonal flows are thought to be driven; (ii) an inner region where hydrogen becomes metallic and dynamo action is expected to sustain the magnetic field. Several internal models however suggest a more intricate structure with a thin intermediate region in which helium would segregate from hydrogen, forming a compositionally-stratified layer. Here, we develop the first global Jovian dynamo which incorporates an intermediate stably-stratified layer between 0.82RJ and 0.86RJ. Using much lower diffusivities than previous models enables us to more clearly separate the dynamics of the metallic core and the molecular envelope. Analysing the energy balance reveals that magnetic energy is almost one order of magnitude larger than kinetic energy in the metallic region, while most of the kinetic energy is pumped into zonal motions in the molecular envelope. Those result from the different underlying force hierarchy with a triple balance between Lorentz, Archimedean and ageostrophic Coriolis forces in the metallic core and inertia, buoyancy and ageostrophic Coriolis forces controlling the external layers. The simulation presented here is the first to demonstrate that multiple zonal jets and dipole-dominated dynamo action can be consolidated in a global simulation. The inclusion of a stable layer is a necessary ingredient that allows zonal jets to develop in the outer envelope without contributing to the dynamo action in the deeper metallic region. Stable stratification however also smooths out the small-scale features of the magnetic field by skin effect, yielding a too-dipolar surface field as compared to the observations. These constraints suggest that possible stable layers in Jupiter should be located much closer to the surface (0.9 − 0.95RJ).

Enhanced Relationship between Central Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperature and Eurasian Surface Air Temperature during Boreal Summers

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between the central tropical Pacific (CTP) sea surface temperature (SST) and the surface air temperature (SAT) variability un-related to canonical El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) over mid-to-high latitude Eurasia during boreal summers over the past half-century. The results show that their relationship experienced a decadal shift around the early 1980s. Before the early 1980s, the Eurasian SAT-CTP SST connection was weak; after that time, the relationship became stronger, and the SAT anomalies exhibited a significant wave-like pattern over Eurasia. Such a decadal change in the Eurasian SAT-CTP SST relationship could be attributed to decadal changes in the mean state and variability of CTP SST. The warmer mean state and enhanced SST variability after the early 1980s reinforced the convective activities over the tropical Pacific, leading to significantly anomalous divergence/convergence and Rossby wave sources over the North Pacific. This outcome further excited the wave train propagating along the Northern Hemisphere zonal jet stream to northern Eurasia and then affected the surface heat fluxes and atmospheric circulations over the region, resulting in wave-like SATs over Eurasia. However, during the period before the early 1980s, the CTP SST had a weak impact on the North Pacific atmospheric circulation and was consequently not able to excite the wave train pattern to impact the Eurasian atmospheric circulation and SATs. The physical processes linking the CTP SST and Eurasian SAT are further confirmed by numerical simulations. The results of this study are valuable to understanding the variability of summer Eurasian SATs.

Mean zonal flows induced by weak mechanical forcings in rotating spheroids

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The role of shallow convection in the momentum budget of the trades from large‐eddy‐simulation hindcasts

AbstractMotivated by the abundance of low clouds in the subtropics, where the easterly trade winds prevail, we study the role of shallow convection in the momentum budget of the trades. To this end, we use ICON‐LEM hindcasts run over the North Atlantic for 12 days corresponding to the NARVAL1 (winter) and NARVAL2 (summer) flight campaigns. The simulation protocol consists of several nested domains, and we focus on the inner domains (≈100 × 100 km2) which have been run at resolutions of 150–600 m and are forced by analysis data, thus exhibiting realistic conditions. Combined, the resolved advection and the subgrid stresses decelerate the easterly flow over a frictional layer that balances the prevailing geostrophic wind forcing. Irrespective of the horizontal resolution, this layer is about 2 km deep in the strong winter trades and 1 km in summer, as winds and geostrophic forcing weaken and cloudiness reduces. The unresolved processes are strongest near the surface and are well captured by traditional K‐diffusion theory, but convective‐scale motions which are not considered in K‐diffusion theory contribute the most in the upper part of the mixed layer and are strongest just below cloud base. The results point out that convection in the mixed layer – the roots of trade‐wind cumuli and subcloud‐layer circulations – play an important role in slowing down easterly flow below cloud base (but little in the cloud layer itself), which helps make the zonal wind jet more distinct. Most of the friction within the clouds and near the wind jet stems from smaller‐scale turbulence stresses.

First direct measurement of auroral and equatorial jets in the stratosphere of Jupiter

Context. The tropospheric wind pattern in Jupiter consists of alternating prograde and retrograde zonal jets with typical velocities of up to 100 m s−1 around the equator. At much higher altitudes, in the ionosphere, strong auroral jets have been discovered with velocities of 1−2 km s−1. There is no such direct measurement in the stratosphere of the planet. Aims. In this Letter, we bridge the altitude gap between these measurements by directly measuring the wind speeds in Jupiter’s stratosphere. Methods. We use the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array’s very high spectral and angular resolution imaging of the stratosphere of Jupiter to retrieve the wind speeds as a function of latitude by fitting the Doppler shifts induced by the winds on the spectral lines. Results. We detect, for the first time, equatorial zonal jets that reside at 1 mbar, that is, above the altitudes where Jupiter’s quasi-quadrennial oscillation occurs. Most noticeably, we find 300−400 m s−1 nonzonal winds at 0.1 mbar over the polar regions underneath the main auroral ovals. They are in counterrotation and lie several hundred kilometers below the ionospheric auroral winds. We suspect them to be the lower tail of the ionospheric auroral winds. Conclusions. We directly detect, for the first time, strong winds in Jupiter’s stratosphere. They are zonal at low-to-mid latitudes and nonzonal at polar latitudes. The wind system found at polar latitudes may help increase the efficiency of chemical complexification by confining the photochemical products in a region of large energetic electron precipitation.

The Nonhydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model for CMIP6 HighResMIP simulations (NICAM16-S): experimental design, model description, and impacts of model updates

Abstract. The Nonhydrostatic ICosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM), a global model with an icosahedral grid system, has been under development for nearly two decades. This paper describes NICAM16-S, the latest stable version of NICAM (NICAM.16), modified for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, High Resolution Model Intercomparison Project (HighResMIP). Major updates of NICAM.12, a previous version used for climate simulations, included updates of the cloud microphysics scheme and land surface model, introduction of natural and anthropogenic aerosols and a subgrid-scale orographic gravity wave drag scheme, and improvement of the coupling between the cloud microphysics and the radiation schemes. External forcings were updated to follow the protocol of the HighResMIP. A series of short-term sensitivity experiments were performed to determine and understand the impacts of these various model updates on the simulated mean states. The NICAM16-S simulations demonstrated improvements in the ice water content, high cloud amount, surface air temperature over the Arctic region, location and strength of zonal mean subtropical jet, and shortwave radiation over Africa and South Asia. Some long-standing biases, such as the double intertropical convergence zone and smaller low cloud amount, still exist or are even worse in some cases, suggesting further necessity for understanding their mechanisms, upgrading schemes and parameter settings, and enhancing horizontal and vertical resolutions.

Dynamics of zonally elongated transient flows

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Rossby Number Dependence of Venus/Titan‐Type Superrotation and Its Related Intermittency

AbstractVenus/Titan‐type superrotation driven by stratospheric heating and intermittency seen in the superrotation dynamics are investigated using an idealized general circulation model in a high Rossby number regime (Ro = 7.5 to 23 for the strongest zonal jet) where the superrotation is formed by the meridional circulation and equatorward eddy momentum flux. When the jet core has a Rossby number of ∼23 on a slowly rotating or small planet, fast planetary‐scale Rossby waves are transiently amplified by both barotropic and baroclinic energy conversion and intermittently produce equatorward eddy momentum fluxes. At high latitudes, poleward eddy momentum transport also occurs when the poleward heat flux of baroclinic eddies is strong. On such a slowly rotating or small‐sized planet, equatorial superrotation is developed efficiently by weak, intermittent equatorward momentum flux in the presence of polar indirect circulation and the speed of the zonal flow is roughly constant over the low‐ and mid‐latitudes. In contrast, on a relatively fast rotating or large‐sized planet when the Rossby number is ∼7.5 for the jet core, although the zonal jets and equatorward eddy momentum fluxes intensify, equatorial superrotation is not developed efficiently (i.e., the superrotation intensity and its equatorial efficiency are small). Strong equatorward eddy momentum fluxes are produced continuously by slow barotropic Rossby waves on the equatorward flanks of the jets developed by the strong meridional circulation. The poleward heat fluxes of baroclinic waves are negligible because it is much smaller than the heat flux of the zonal‐mean meridional circulation.