Content area

Abstract

This study continues the investigation of airstreams in idealized moist baroclinic waves and addresses the formation of the cold conveyor belt (CCB), its linkage to the warm conveyor belt (WCB), and their impact on the development of a midlatitude cyclone. The CCB is identified as a coherent bundle of trajectories, characterized by weak ascent and a strong increase of potential vorticity (PV) along the flow, in contrast to the WCB, defined as the trajectories with maximum ascent. The authors illuminate the role of the two conveyor belts in the formation of two strong PV anomalies that form in the upper (WCB, negative PV anomaly) and lower troposphere (CCB, positive PV anomaly), respectively, and thereby establish a link between these airstreams and relevant aspects of the dynamics of extratropical cyclones. The CCB moves close to the surface along the colder side of the bent-back front and experiences a PV increase as it passes below a region of maximum latent heat release at midtropospheric levels. Accordingly, it arrives with high PV values at the tail of the bent-back front where the most intense low-level winds occur. The WCB, which rises above the bentback front, causes the formation of the midtropospheric heating rate maximum and thereby not only influences the upper-level downstream development, but also drives the increase of PV along the CCB and, in consequence, indirectly drives the formation of the low-level jet at the tail of the bent-back front. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Details

Title
The Linkage between the Warm and the Cold Conveyor Belts in an Idealized Extratropical Cyclone*
Publication title
Volume
71
Issue
4
Pages
1443-1459
Number of pages
17
Publication year
2014
Publication date
Apr 2014
Publisher
American Meteorological Society
Place of publication
Boston
Country of publication
United States
Publication subject
ISSN
00224928
e-ISSN
15200469
CODEN
JAHSAK
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
Document type
Feature
Document feature
Graphs; References
ProQuest document ID
1518673762
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/linkage-between-warm-cold-conveyor-belts/docview/1518673762/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
Copyright American Meteorological Society Apr 2014
Last updated
2024-11-08
Database
ProQuest One Academic