The British–Baikal Corridor: A Teleconnection Pattern along the Summertime Polar Front Jet over Eurasia

• Published in: Journal of climate 2019-02, Vol.32 (3), p.877-896
• Main Authors: Xu, Peiqiang, Wang, Lin, Chen, Wen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic front; Atmospheric forcing; Baroclinic flow; Barotropic mode; Basic converters; Climate; Climatological means; Datasets; Eddies; Energy conversion; Geographical distribution; Geographical locations; Interannual variability; Lakes; North Atlantic Oscillation; Ocean-atmosphere system; Pattern analysis; Polar fronts; Precipitation; Standard deviation; Stratification; Studies; Summer; Teleconnection patterns; Teleconnections; Vortices; Vorticity; Water vapor; Water vapour; Waveguides; Wavelengths
• ISSN: 0894-8755; 1520-0442
• DOI: 10.1175/jcli-d-18-0343.1

The British–Baikal Corridor (BBC) pattern, a new teleconnection along the summertime upper-tropospheric polar front jet (PFJ), is investigated based on observational and reanalysis datasets. The BBC pattern consists of four geographically fixed centers over the west of the British Isles, the Baltic Sea, western Siberia, and Lake Baikal, respectively. It features a zonally oriented and meridionally confined wavelike structure with a zonal wavenumber 5, and it influences the climate along its route significantly. The BBC pattern forms from the trapped effect of the PFJ waveguide that is characterized by a strong meridional gradient of stratification.As a preferred dynamical mode inherent in the PFJ, it is maintained through the baroclinic energy conversion from the basic flow and the feedback forcing of high-frequency transient eddies. Meanwhile, its geographical location is determined by the barotropic energy conversion, which is sensitive to the configuration of the basic flow. The interannual variability of the BBC pattern is dominated by atmospheric internal dynamics considering its loose relation with immediate atmospheric external forcing. Further analyses suggest that the BBC pattern is excited by the active multiscale interactions among the climatological mean flow, the low-frequency flow, and the synoptic-scale transient eddies in the exit region of the North Atlantic jet, which may also determine the preferential upstream forcing region and anchor the BBC pattern geographically. Budget analyses on vorticity, temperature, and water vapor are performed to interpret the physical nature of the BBC pattern. The possible linkage to the North Atlantic Oscillation is also discussed.