Agnostic detection of large-scale weather patterns in the northern hemisphere: from blockings to teleconnections

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Springer, Sebastian, Galfi, Vera Melinda, Laio, Alessandro, Lucarini, Valerio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Springer, Sebastian
Galfi, Vera Melinda
Laio, Alessandro
Lucarini, Valerio
author_facet Springer, Sebastian
Galfi, Vera Melinda
Laio, Alessandro
Lucarini, Valerio
contents Detecting recurrent weather patterns and understanding the transitions between such regimes are key to advancing our knowledge on the low-frequency variability of the atmosphere and have important implications in terms of weather and climate-related risks. We adapt an analysis pipeline inspired by Markov State Modelling and detect in an unsupervised manner the dominant winter mid-latitude Northern Hemisphere weather patterns in the Atlantic and Pacific sectors. The daily 500 hPa geopotential height fields are first classified in $\sim 200$ microstates. The weather dynamics is then represented in the basis of these microstates and the slowest decaying modes are identified from the spectral properties of the transition probability matrix. These modes are defined on the basis of the nonlinear dynamical processes of the system and not as tentative metastable states as often done in Markov state analysis. In the Atlantic and Pacific sectors slow relaxation processes are mainly related to transitions between blocked regimes and zonal flow. We also find strong evidence of a dynamical regime associated with the simultaneous Atlantic-Pacific blocking. When the analysis is performed in a broader geographical region of the Atlantic sector, we discover that the slowest relaxation modes of the system are associated with transitions between dynamical regimes that resemble teleconnection patterns like the North Atlantic Oscillation and weather regimes like the Scandinavian and Greenland blocking, yet have a much stronger dynamical foundation than classical methods based e.g. on EOF analysis. Our method clarifies that, as a result of the lack of a time-scale separation in the atmospheric variability of the mid-latitudes, there is no clear-cut way to represent the atmospheric dynamics in terms of few, well-defined modes of variability.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_06833
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Agnostic detection of large-scale weather patterns in the northern hemisphere: from blockings to teleconnections
Springer, Sebastian
Galfi, Vera Melinda
Laio, Alessandro
Lucarini, Valerio
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Geophysics
Detecting recurrent weather patterns and understanding the transitions between such regimes are key to advancing our knowledge on the low-frequency variability of the atmosphere and have important implications in terms of weather and climate-related risks. We adapt an analysis pipeline inspired by Markov State Modelling and detect in an unsupervised manner the dominant winter mid-latitude Northern Hemisphere weather patterns in the Atlantic and Pacific sectors. The daily 500 hPa geopotential height fields are first classified in $\sim 200$ microstates. The weather dynamics is then represented in the basis of these microstates and the slowest decaying modes are identified from the spectral properties of the transition probability matrix. These modes are defined on the basis of the nonlinear dynamical processes of the system and not as tentative metastable states as often done in Markov state analysis. In the Atlantic and Pacific sectors slow relaxation processes are mainly related to transitions between blocked regimes and zonal flow. We also find strong evidence of a dynamical regime associated with the simultaneous Atlantic-Pacific blocking. When the analysis is performed in a broader geographical region of the Atlantic sector, we discover that the slowest relaxation modes of the system are associated with transitions between dynamical regimes that resemble teleconnection patterns like the North Atlantic Oscillation and weather regimes like the Scandinavian and Greenland blocking, yet have a much stronger dynamical foundation than classical methods based e.g. on EOF analysis. Our method clarifies that, as a result of the lack of a time-scale separation in the atmospheric variability of the mid-latitudes, there is no clear-cut way to represent the atmospheric dynamics in terms of few, well-defined modes of variability.
title Agnostic detection of large-scale weather patterns in the northern hemisphere: from blockings to teleconnections
topic Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability
Geophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.06833