Understanding the varied response of the extratropical storm tracks to climate change.

ABSTRACT: Transient eddies in the extratropical storm tracks are a primary mechanism for the transport of momentum, energy, and water in the atmosphere, and as such are a major component of the climate system. Changes in the extratropical storm tracks under global warming would impact these transports, the ocean circulation and carbon cycle, and society through changing weather patterns. I show that the southern storm track intensifies in the multimodel mean of simulations of 21st century climate change, and that the seasonal cycle of storm-track intensity increases in amplitude in both hemispheres. I use observations of the present-day seasonal cycle to confirm the relationship between storm-track intensity and the mean available potential energy of the atmosphere, and show how this quantitative re

SUBMITTER: O'Gorman PA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2984218 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature