Judah Cohen

Eurasian snow cover variability and northern hemisphere climate predictability

We present observational evidence demonstrating dynamic interactions and feedbacks between multi-seasonal snow cover and winter-time circulation anomalies over mid-high latitudes. The cooling effect of snow cover is associated with a strengthened and more expansive Siberian high with more frequent, topographically constrained intrusions west and north. Early-season snow cover variability leads to altered general circulation patterns consistent with the dominant mode of winter variability observed in the Northern Hemisphere troposphere. The implications of the surface-atmosphere coupling for seasonal to interannual predictability are also discussed.

Arctic warming, increasing snow cover and widespread boreal winter cooling

The most up to date consensus from global climate models predicts warming in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) high latitudes to middle latitudes during boreal winter. However, recent trends in observed NH winter surface temperatures diverge from these projections. For the last two decades, large-scale cooling trends have existed instead across large stretches of eastern North America and northern Eurasia. We argue that this unforeseen trend is probably not due to internal variability alone. Instead, evidence suggests that summer and autumn warming trends are concurrent with increases in high-latitude moisture and an increase in Eurasian snow cover, which dynamically induces large-scale wintertime cooling. Understanding this counterintuitive response to radiative warming of the climate system has the potential for improving climate predictions at seasonal and longer timescales.

Stratosphere-Troposphere Coupling and Links with Eurasian Land Surface Variability

A diagnostic of Northern Hemisphere winter extratropical stratosphere–troposphere interactions is presented to facilitate the study of stratosphere–troposphere coupling and to examine what might influence these interactions. The diagnostic is a multivariate EOF combining lower-stratospheric planetary wave activity flux in December with sea level pressure in January. This EOF analysis captures a strong linkage between the vertical component of lower-stratospheric wave activity over Eurasia and the subsequent development of hemisphere-wide surface circulation anomalies, which are strongly related to the Arctic Oscillation. Wintertime stratosphere–troposphere events picked out by this diagnostic often have a precursor in autumn: years with large October snow extent over Eurasia feature strong wintertime upwardpropagating planetary wave pulses, a weaker wintertime polar vortex, and high geopotential heights in the wintertime polar troposphere. This provides further evidence for predictability of wintertime circulation based on autumnal snow extent over Eurasia. These results also raise the question of how the atmosphere will respond to a modified snow cover in a changing climate.

The effect of snow cover on the climate

Abstract Large-scale snow cover anomalies are thought to cause significant changes in the diabatic heating of the earths surface in such a way as to produce substantial local cooling in the surface temperatures. This theory was tested using the GISS 3-D GCM (General Circulation Model). The results of the GCM experiment showed that snow cover caused only a short term local decrease in the surface temperature. In the surface energy budget, reduction in absorbed shortwave radiation and the increased latent heat sink of melting snow contributed to lower temperatures. However, all the remaining heating terms contribute to increasing the net heating over a snow covered surface. The results emphasize the negative feedback which limits the impact of snow cover anomalies over longer time scales.

Impact of sea ice cover changes on the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric winter circulation

ABSTRACT The response of the Arctic atmosphere to low and high sea ice concentration phases based on European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Re-Analysis Interim (ERA-Interim) atmospheric data and Hadley Centres sea ice dataset (HadISST1) from 1989 until 2010 has been studied. Time slices of winter atmospheric circulation with high (1990–2000) and low (2001–2010) sea ice concentration in the preceding August/September have been analysed with respect to tropospheric interactions between planetary and baroclinic waves. It is shown that a changed sea ice concentration over the Arctic Ocean impacts differently the development of synoptic and planetary atmospheric circulation systems. During the low ice phase, stronger heat release to the atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean reduces the atmospheric vertical static stability. This leads to an earlier onset of baroclinic instability that further modulates the non-linear interactions between baroclinic wave energy fluxes on time scales of 2.5–6 d and planetary scales of 10–90 d. Our analysis suggests that Arctic sea ice concentration changes exert a remote impact on the large-scale atmospheric circulation during winter, exhibiting a barotropic structure with similar patterns of pressure anomalies at the surface and in the mid-troposphere. These are connected to pronounced planetary wave train changes notably over the North Pacific.

Snow cover and snow mass intercomparisons of general circulation models and remotely sensed datasets

Abstract Confirmation of the ability of general circulation models (GCMs) to accurately represent snow cover and snow mass distributions is vital for climate studies. There must be a high degree of confidence that what is being predicted by the models is reliable, since realistic results cannot be assured unless they are tested against results from observed data or other available datasets. In this study, snow output from seven GCMs and passive-microwave snow data derived from the Nimbus-7 Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) are intercompared. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite data are used as the standard of reference for snow extent observations and the U.S. Air Force snow depth climatology is used as the standard for snow mass. The reliability of the SMMR snow data needs to be verified, as well, because currently this is the only available dataset that allows for yearly and monthly variations in snow depth. [The GCMs employed in this investigation are the United Ki...

The role of the Siberian high in northern hemisphere climate variability

The dominant mode of sea level pressure (SLP) variability during the winter months in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) is characterized by a dipole with one anomaly center covering the Arctic with the opposite sign anomaly stretched across the mid-latitudes. Associated with the SLP anomaly, is a surface temperature anomaly induced by the anomalous circulation. We will show that this anomaly pattern originates in the early fall, on a much more regional scale, in Siberia. As the season progresses this anomaly pattern propagates and amplifies to dominate much of the extratropical NH, making the Siberian high a dominant force in NH climate variability in winter. Also since the SLP and surface temperature anomalies originate in a region of maximum fall snow cover variability, we argue that snow cover partially forces the phase of winter variability and can potentially be used for the skillful prediction of winter climate.

Modeled Northern Hemisphere Winter Climate Response to Realistic Siberian Snow Anomalies

Wintertime Northern Hemisphere climate variability is investigated using large-ensemble (20) numerical GCM simulations. Control simulations with climatological surface (land and ocean) conditions indicate that the Arctic Oscillation (AO) is an internal mode of the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere, and that it can be triggered through a myriad of perturbations. In this study the role of autumn land surface snow conditions is investigated. Satellite observations of historical autumn‐winter snow cover are applied over Siberia as model boundary conditions for two snow-forced experiments, one using the highest observed autumn snow cover extent over Siberia (1976) and another using the lowest extent (1988). The ensemble-mean difference between the two snow-forced experiments is computed to evaluate the climatic response to Siberian snow conditions. Experiment results suggest that Siberian snow conditions exert a modulating influence on the predominant wintertime Northern Hemisphere (AO) mode. Furthermore, an atmospheric teleconnection pathway is identified, involving well-known wave‐ mean flow interaction processes throughout the troposphere and stratosphere. Anomalously high Siberian snow increases local upward stationary wave flux activity, weakens the stratospheric polar vortex, and causes uppertroposphere stationary waves to refract poleward. These related stationary wave and mean flow anomalies propagate down through the troposphere via a positive feedback, which results in a downward-propagating negative AO anomaly during the winter season from the stratosphere to the surface. This pathway provides a physical explanation for how regional land surface snow anomalies can influence winter climate on a hemispheric scale. The results of this study may potentially lead to improved predictions of the winter AO mode, based on Siberian snow conditions during the preceding autumn.

The NAO, the AO, and Global Warming: How Closely Related?

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the closely related Arctic Oscillation (AO) strongly affect Northern Hemisphere (NH) surface temperatures with patterns reported similar to the global warming trend. The NAO and AO were in a positive trend for much of the 1970s and 1980s with historic highs in the early 1990s, and it has been suggested that they contributed significantly to the global warming signal. The trends in standard indices of the AO, NAO, and NH average surface temperature for December-February, 1950-2004, and the associated patterns in surface temperature anomalies are examined. Also analyzed are factors previously identified as relating to the NAO, AO, and their positive trend: North Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs), Indo-Pacific warm pool SSTs, stratospheric circulation, and Eurasian snow cover. Recently, the NAO and AO indices have been decreasing; when these data are included, the overall trends for the past 30 years are weak to nonexistent and are strongly dependent on the choice of start and end date. In clear distinction, the wintertime hemispheric warming trend has been vigorous and consistent throughout the entire period. When considered for the whole hemisphere, the NAO/AO patterns can also be distinguished from the trend pattern. Thus the December-February warming trend may be distinguished from the AO and NAO in terms of the strength, consistency, and pattern of the trend. These results are insensitive to choice of index or dataset. While the NAO and AO may contribute to hemispheric and regional warming for multiyear periods, these differences suggest that the large-scale features of the global warming trend over the last 30 years are unrelated to the AO and NAO. The related factors may also be clearly distinguished, with warm pool SSTs linked to the warming trend, while the others are linked to the NAO and AO.

The Dynamical Response to Snow Cover Perturbations in a Large Ensemble of Atmospheric GCM Integrations

Variability in the extent of fall season snow cover over the Eurasian sector has been linked in observations to a teleconnection with the winter northern annular mode pattern. Here, the dynamics of this teleconnection are investigated using a 100-member ensemble of transient integrations of the GFDL atmospheric general circulation model (AM2). The model is perturbed with a simple persisted snow anomaly over Siberia and is integrated from October through December. Strong surface cooling occurs above the anomalous Siberian snow cover, which produces a tropospheric form stress anomaly associated with the vertical propagation of wave activity. This wave activity response drives wave‐mean flow interaction in the lower stratosphere and subsequent downward propagation of a negative-phase northern annular mode response back into the troposphere. A wintertime coupled stratosphere‐troposphere response to fall season snow forcing is also found to occur even when the snow forcing itself does not persist into winter. Finally, the response to snow forcing is compared in versions of the same model with and without a well-resolved stratosphere. The version with the well-resolved stratosphere exhibits a faster and weaker response to snow forcing, and this difference is tied to the unrealistic representation of the unforced lower-stratospheric circulation in that model.