The effects of different sudden stratospheric warming type on the ocean: Ocean impacts of SSWs

O'Callaghan, Amee ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9111-6081, Joshi, Manoj ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2948-2811, Stevens, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7283-4405 and Mitchell, Daniel (2014) The effects of different sudden stratospheric warming type on the ocean: Ocean impacts of SSWs. Geophysical Research Letters, 41 (21). 7739–7745. ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

There is a confirmed link between sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) and surface weather. Here we find significant differences in the strength of surface and ocean responses for splitting and displacement SSWs, classified using a new straightforward moment analysis technique. In an intermediate general circulation model splitting SSWs possess an enhanced ability to affect the surface climate demonstrating the need to treat the two types individually. Following SSWs the North Atlantic surface wind stress curl weakens, compared to its climatological winter state, for over 30 days: this is also evident in NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. The effect of anomalies associated with SSWs on the ocean is analysed in the Intermediate General Circulation Model 4. The splitting SSW composite displays strong anomalies in the implied Ekman heat flux and net atmosphere-surface flux, modifying the mixed layer heat budget. Our results highlight that different SSW types need to be simulated in coupled stratospheric/tropospheric/ocean models.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: ©2014. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords: sudden stratospheric warming,ssw,atmosphere-ocean interaction,stratopshere-troposphere interaction,northern annual mode,nam,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science > School of Mathematics
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climatic Research Unit
University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluid and Solid Mechanics
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 02 Jan 2015 12:54
Last Modified: 13 Jun 2023 08:27
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/51276
DOI: 10.1002/2014GL062179

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