Atmospheric blocking in an aquaplanet and the impact of orography

Narinesingh, Veeshan; Booth, James F.; Clark, Spencer K.; Ming, Yi

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-293-2020

Articles | Volume 1, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-293-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-293-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 1, issue 2

Research article

|

08 Jul 2020

Research article |

| 08 Jul 2020

Atmospheric blocking in an aquaplanet and the impact of orography

Veeshan Narinesingh, James F. Booth, Spencer K. Clark, and Yi Ming

Data sets

The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system (https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era-interim/) D. P. Dee, S. M. Uppala, A. J. Simmons, P. Berrisford, P. Poli, S. Kobayashi, U. Andrae, M. A. Balmaseda, G. Balsamo, P. Bauer, P. Bechtold, A. C. M. Beljaars, L. Van de Berg, J. Bidlot, N. Bormann, C. Delsol, R. Dragani, M. Fuentes, A. J. Geer, L. Haimberger, S. B. Healy, H. Hersbach, E. V. Hólm, L. Isaksen, P. Kållberg, M. Köhler, M. Matricardi, A. P. McNally, B. M. Monge-Sanz, J. Morcrette, B. Park, C. Peubey, P. de Rosnay, C. Tavolato, J. Thépaut, and F. Vitart https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.828

Short summary

This work investigates the influence of orography on atmospheric blocking dynamics, spatial frequency, and duration. Using an idealized model, a landless integration and integrations with mountains are analyzed. The dynamical evolution of blocking in the idealized model is found to be similar to reanalysis. Orography is found to significantly increase blocking and anchors where blocks most likely occur (i.e., just upstream from mountains and near storm track exits).