Climatology and interannual variability of storm-tracks in the Euro-Atlantic sector: a comparison between ERA-40 and NCEP/NCAR reanalyses

An objective methodology is applied to ERA-40 (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 40-year Reanalysis) and NCEP/NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research) reanalyses, to build two storm-track databases for the Euro-Atlantic sector (85°W–70°E; 20°N–75°N), spanning the period December 1958–March 2000. The technique uses the full temporal (6-hourly) and spatial resolutions (1.125° and 2.5° regular grids, for ERA-40 and NCEP/NCAR, respectively) available. It is shown that the strong discrepancies in the number of storms in each dataset (higher for ERA-40) result from differences in the resolution of the fields subject to the storm detecting/tracking algorithm, and also from the characteristics of the integration models and assimilation schemes used for each reanalysis. An intercomparison of ERA-40 and NCEP/NCAR storm-tracks is performed for spatial distribution, and main characteristics, of the overall cyclone population and of a class of severe storms—explosive cyclones. Despite the discrepancies in storm numbers, both reanalyses agree on the main cyclone activity areas (formation, minimum central pressure, and lysis). The most pronounced differences occur where subsynoptic systems are frequent, as these are better resolved by ERA-40 data. The interannual variability of cyclone counts, analysed per intensity classes and for different regions of the domain, reveals reasonable agreement between the two datasets on the sign of trends (generally positive in northern latitudes, and negative in the Azores-Mediterranean band), but discrepancies regarding their strength in the most southern areas, where the mismatches between ERA-40 and NCEP/NCAR detected lows are greatest. Submitted to Climate Dynamics in December 2004     

冬季格陵兰以东区域海冰异常对北大西洋风暴轴的影响研究

对45个冬季格陵兰以东区域海冰密集度场与北大西洋500hPa位势高度滤波方差作奇异值(SVD)分析,结果表明:SVD得到的第一对空间典型分布反映了冬季格陵兰以东区域海冰异常与风暴轴的异常变化密切相关。进一步的合成分析显示,海冰异常使得大气环流调整,气压梯度、天气尺度涡动热量的经向通量和垂直通量、局地斜压性均发生改变,从而对风暴轴的强度及中心的位移造成影响。