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The Effects of Diabatic Heating on Upper THE EFFECTS OF DIABATIC HEATING ON UPPER- TROPOSPHERIC ANTICYCLOGENESIS by Ross A. Lazear A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) at the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON 2007 i Abstract The role of diabatic heating in the development and maintenance of persistent, upper- tropospheric, large-scale anticyclonic anomalies in the subtropics (subtropical gyres) and middle latitudes (blocking highs) is investigated from the perspective of potential vorticity (PV) non-conservation. The low PV within blocking anticyclones is related to condensational heating within strengthening upstream synoptic-scale systems. Additionally, the associated convective outflow from tropical cyclones (TCs) is shown to build upper- tropospheric, subtropical anticyclones. Not only do both of these large-scale flow phenomena have an impact on the structure and dynamics of neighboring weather systems, and consequently the day-to-day weather, the very persistence of these anticyclones means that they have a profound influence on the seasonal climate of the regions in which they exist. A blocking index based on the meridional reversal of potential temperature on the dynamic tropopause is used to identify cases of wintertime blocking in the North Atlantic from 2000-2007. Two specific cases of blocking are analyzed, one event from February 1983, and another identified using the index, from January 2007. Parallel numerical simulations of these blocking events, differing only in one simulation’s neglect of the effects of latent heating of condensation (a “fake dry” run), illustrate the importance of latent heating in the amplification and wave-breaking of both blocking events. Anticyclogenesis in the “fake dry” runs is shown to be weaker than in the full physics simulations. Additionally, adjoint sensitivity studies were performed on the January 2007 blocking case with a response function specified as the low values of upper-tropospheric PV within the block. Results show that the low PV is sensitive to the strength of the upstream upper trough, as well as a ii region where an explosive cyclogenesis event (and thus, large amounts of latent heating) was taking place. The significant latent heating within the circulation of a strong TC also alters the upper-tropospheric circulation through PV redistribution, creating a broad, upper- tropospheric, anticyclonic circulation. A case study of these “outflow footprints” of Atlantic hurricanes Ophelia and Rita (2005) is presented. Specifically, the development of Ophelia’s outflow circulation and its effects on the development of Hurricane Rita are discussed. Unlike with blocking events, TC outflow anticyclones cannot be maintained adiabatically. The TC anticyclone, if removed from the westerlies and not supported diabatically by the TC convection, slowly decays while persisting for several days. iii Acknowledgements My first thanks go to Dr. Michael Morgan, who I am very grateful to have had as an advisor. Throughout my time as an undergraduate and graduate student at AOS, Michael was always available and willing to help, whether it was for simple programming questions, or complex, scientific issues. I also value my friendship with Michael, whose animated, boisterous behavior while at long lunches, dinners and research group parties were always entertaining, and certainly took away some of the stress of academics. Also, without Michael, the word “concomitant” would definitely be absent from this thesis. Next, my thanks go out to the entire AOS department faculty. Specifically, I’d like to acknowledge Dr. Jon Martin and Dr. John Young for their interesting discussions and valuable suggestions after reading this thesis. Furthermore, after years of needing computer assistance or data acquisition, I’m fairly certain that Pete Pokrandt is the greatest systems administrator in the world. I’d also like to thank my close friends and acquaintances in the AOS department. In the “Morgan research group,” Nick Bassill, for office and lab camaraderie and for accompanying me “chasing” Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi coast; Brett Hoover for creating rap music out of the NOGAPS adjoint code with me; Dianna Nelson for bringing Ertel and Ekman to the lab; Li Bi for being a great office-mate and for buying us all lots of candy in Monterey; Dan Chavas, who I can clearly hear laugh from anywhere in the AOS building, and Andy Hulme, for being the honorary “Morgan groupie” and a good roommate. Finally, I’d like to acknowledge my family. I would never have gotten this far without the love, support and encouragement from my parents, Jonathon and Wendy. As a weather-obsessed child, my parents fueled my interest in the subject by agreeing to wake me iv up in the middle of the night if there was any interesting severe weather approaching the Twin Cities (without which, I would have likely never slept!). I would also like to thank my parents and my brother, Mike, for always reminding me how worthwhile it has been (and will be) to follow my passion. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation with funds from Grant ATM-0121186. v Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................i Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ iii 1. Introduction a. Northern Hemispheric low frequency variability ...................................................1 b. Persistent large-scale cyclones (extended jet) ........................................................3 c. Persistent large-scale anticyclones (blocking)........................................................4 2. The effect of latent heating on the formation of atmospheric blocking 2.1 Introduction................................................................................................................12 2.2 Data and blocking case retrieval methodology a. Data sets..............................................................................................................18 b. Blocking indices in recent research .....................................................................18 c. Blocking event identification...............................................................................20 d. North Atlantic blocking events............................................................................24 2.3 Case studies.................................................................................................................25 a. February 1983 case .............................................................................................27 b. January 2007 case ...............................................................................................35 2.4 Moist vs. dry simulations............................................................................................43 2.5 Adjoint sensitivity study a. Introduction.........................................................................................................49 b. Adjoint modeling system ....................................................................................50 c. Sensitivities of R1 to vorticity..............................................................................53 d. Sensitivities of R2 to vorticity..............................................................................55 vi e. Sensitivities of R3 to vorticity..............................................................................56 f. Discussion ...........................................................................................................57 2.6 Conclusion...................................................................................................................58 3. The influence of tropical cyclone outflow on the upper-tropospheric circulation 3.1 Introduction................................................................................................................62 3.2 Case study a. Data ....................................................................................................................64 b. Synoptic overview ..............................................................................................64 3.3 Discussion and future work........................................................................................69 4. Conclusions...................................................................................................................71 1 1. Introduction a. Northern Hemispheric low frequency variability The seasonally averaged mid-latitude circulation is characterized by planetary-scale waves that are forced by large-scale topographic features, diabatic heating, and transient eddy fluxes of (potential) vorticity. Spectral model simulations with realistic land/sea geography and topography show storm track regions east of large topographic features, such as over the western North Pacific and east of North America over the North Atlantic (Wallace and Lau 1985). Downstream of these storm tracks are local maxima in low-pass filtered temporal root mean square of 500-hPa height, owing to the fact that these regions are dominated by low-frequency variability (often defined as planetary-scale waves with periods greater than 10 days). In these simulations, scale interactions are also evident, with upstream high frequency eddies acting to transport momentum into the storm track regions,
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