Articles | Volume 1, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-405-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-405-2020
Research article
 | 
24 Aug 2020
Research article |  | 24 Aug 2020

The sensitivity of atmospheric blocking to upstream latent heating – numerical experiments

Daniel Steinfeld, Maxi Boettcher, Richard Forbes, and Stephan Pfahl

Related authors

Assessing the performance of various fire weather indices for wildfire occurrence in Northern Switzerland
Daniel Steinfeld, Adrian Peter, Olivia Martius, and Stefan Brönnimann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-92,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-92, 2022
Preprint archived
Short summary

Related subject area

Dynamical processes in midlatitudes
Weather type reconstruction using machine learning approaches
Lucas Pfister, Lena Wilhelm, Yuri Brugnara, Noemi Imfeld, and Stefan Brönnimann
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 571–594, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-571-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-571-2025, 2025
Short summary
Temporally and zonally varying atmospheric waveguides – climatologies and connections to quasi-stationary waves
Rachel H. White and Lualawi Mareshet Admasu
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 549–570, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-549-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-549-2025, 2025
Short summary
Moisture transport axes: a unifying definition for tropical moisture exports, atmospheric rivers, and warm moist intrusions
Clemens Spensberger, Kjersti Konstali, and Thomas Spengler
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 431–446, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-431-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-431-2025, 2025
Short summary
On the movement of atmospheric blocking systems and the associated temperature responses
Jonna van Mourik, Hylke de Vries, and Michiel Baatsen
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 413–429, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-413-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-413-2025, 2025
Short summary
An ERA5 climatology of synoptic-scale negative potential vorticity–jet interactions over the western North Atlantic
Alexander Lojko, Andrew C. Winters, Annika Oertel, Christiane Jablonowski, and Ashley E. Payne
Weather Clim. Dynam., 6, 387–411, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-387-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-387-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Ahlgrimm, M. and Forbes, R.: Improving the Representation of Low Clouds and Drizzle in the ECMWF Model Based on ARM Observations from the Azores, Mon. Weather Rev., 142, 668–685, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-13-00153.1, 2013. a
Ahmadi-Givi, F., Graig, G. C., and Plant, R. S.: The dynamics of a midlatitude cyclone with very strong latent-heat release, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 130, 295–323, https://doi.org/10.1256/qj.02.226, 2004. a, b, c
Altenhoff, A. M., Martius, O., Croci-Maspoli, M., Schwierz, C., and Davies, H. C.: Linkage of atmospheric blocks and synoptic-scale Rossby waves: a climatological analysis, Tellus A, 60, 1053–1063, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0870.2008.00354.x, 2008. a, b
Archambault, H. M., Bosart, L. F., Keyser, D., and Cordeira, J. M.: A climatological analysis of the extratropical flow response to recurving western north pacific tropical cyclones, Mon. Weather Rev., 141, 2325–2346, https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-12-00257.1, 2013. a
Attinger, R., Spreitzer, E., Boettcher, M., Forbes, R., Wernli, H., and Joos, H.: Quantifying the role of individual diabatic processes for the formation of PV anomalies in a North Pacific cyclone, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 145, 2454–2476, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.3573, 2019. a, b
Download
Short summary
The effect of latent heating on atmospheric blocking is investigated using numerical sensitivity experiments. The modification of latent heating in the upstream cyclone has substantial effects on the upper-tropospheric circulation, demonstrating that some blocking systems do not develop at all without upstream latent heating. The results highlight the importance of moist-diabatic processes for the dynamics of prolonged anticyclonic circulation anomalies.
Share