Executive editors: Camille Li, Stephan Pfahl & Heini Wernli
Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD) is a not-for-profit international scientific journal dedicated to the publication and public discussion of high-quality research on dynamical processes in the atmosphere. It represents a timely effort to establish a seamless perspective on atmospheric flows, on scales from weather to climate (minutes to decades). The scope of the journal includes the following: the dynamics of extreme weather events (case studies and climatological analyses); weather system dynamics in tropical, midlatitude and polar regions; interactions of atmospheric flows with cloud physics and/or radiation; links between the atmospheric water cycle and weather systems; tropical-extratropical and midlatitude-polar interactions; atmospheric teleconnections and stratosphere-troposphere coupling; boundary-layer dynamics and coupling to land, ocean and ice; atmospheric variability and predictability on time scales from minutes to decades; storm track and Hadley cell dynamics; role of atmospheric dynamics in paleoclimate and climate change projections; and other aspects of weather and climate dynamics. Theoretical studies, idealized numerical studies, full-physics numerical studies, and diagnostic studies using (re)analysis and/or observational data are welcome.
In this paper, we investigate air–sea interaction by looking at the relationship between spatial variability in surface heat flux and air temperature. We observe that their interaction characterises different stages of storm evolution, thus providing a new perspective on the role played by air–sea heat exchange.
Preprint under review for WCD(discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
Short summary
Observations of the stratosphere span roughly half a century preventing analysis of multi-decadal variability in circulation using these data. Instead, we rely on long simulations of climate models. Here, we use a model to examine variations in northern polar stratospheric winds and find they vary with a period of around 90 years. We show that this is possibly due to variations in the size of winds over the equator. This result may improve understanding of equator-polar stratospheric coupling.
Preprint under review for WCD(discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
Short summary
On 14–15 October 2018, in the Aude department (France), a heavy precipitation event produced up to about 300 mm of rain in 11 h. Simulations carried out show that the former hurricane Leslie, while involved, is not the first supplier of moisture over the entire event. The location of the highest rainfall appears to be driven primarily by the location of a quasi-stationary cold front and secondarily by the location of precipitation bands downwind of the mountains bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
Most precipitation over Europe is linked to low-pressure systems, cold fronts, warm fronts, or high-pressure systems. Based on a massive computer simulation able to resolve thunderstorms, we quantify in detail how much precipitation these weather systems produced during 2000–2008. We find distinct seasonal and regional differences, such as fronts precipitating a lot in fall and winter over the North Atlantic but high-pressure systems mostly in summer over the continent by way of thunderstorms.
In this paper we investigate the role of the tropospheric forcing in the occurrence of the sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) that took place in February 2018, its predictability and teleconnection with the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) by analysing the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ensemble forecast. The purpose of the paper is to present the results of the analysis of the atmospheric circulation before and during the SSW and clarify the driving mechanisms.
The impact of chlorophyll on the southwest monsoon is unknown. Here, seasonally varying chlorophyll in the Bay of Bengal was imposed in a general circulation model coupled to an ocean mixed layer model. The SST increases by 0.5 °C in response to chlorophyll forcing and shallow mixed layer depths in coastal regions during the inter-monsoon. Precipitation increases significantly to 3 mm d-1 across Myanmar during June and over northeast India and Bangladesh during October, decreasing model bias.
The study presents the first results from the airborne RASTA observations measured during the North Atlantic Waveguide and Downstream Impact Experiment (NAWDEX). Our combined Eulerian–Lagrangian analysis found three types of organized convection (frontal, banded and mid-level) in the warm conveyor belt (WCB) of the Stalactite cyclone. The results emphasize that convection embedded in WCBs occurs in a coherent and organized manner rather than as isolated cells.
In September 2018 an intense Mediterranean cyclone with structural similarities to a hurricane, a so-called medicane, caused severe damage in Greece. Its development was uncertain, even just a few days in advance. The reason for this was uncertainties in the jet stream over the North Atlantic 3 d prior to cyclogenesis that propagated into the Mediterranean. They led to an uncertain position of the upper-level disturbance and, as a result, of the position and thermal structure of the cyclone.
Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) are important cloud- and
precipitation-producing airstreams in extratropical cyclones. By combining satellite observations with model data from a new reanalysis dataset, this study provides detailed observational insight into the vertical cloud structure of WCBs. We find that the reanalyses essentially capture the observed cloud pattern, but the observations reveal mesoscale structures not resolved by the temporally and spatially much coarser-resolution model data.
Hilla Afargan-Gerstman, Iuliia Polkova, Lukas Papritz, Paolo Ruggieri, Martin P. King, Panos J. Athanasiadis, Johanna Baehr, and Daniela I. V. Domeisen
We investigate the stratospheric influence on marine cold air outbreaks (MCAOs) in the North Atlantic using ERA-Interim reanalysis data. MCAOs are associated with severe Arctic weather, such as polar lows and strong surface winds. Sudden stratospheric events are found to be associated with more frequent MCAOs in the Barents and the Norwegian seas, affected by the anomalous circulation over Greenland and Scandinavia. Identification of MCAO precursors is crucial for improved long-range prediction.
In this study we quantify how much the coldest, middle and hottest third of all days during extremely hot summers contribute to their respective seasonal mean anomaly. This extreme-summer substructure varies substantially across the Northern Hemisphere and is directly related to the local physical drivers of extreme summers. Furthermore, comparing re-analysis (i.e. measurement-based) and climate model extreme-summer substructures reveals a remarkable level of agreement.
EGU is seeking scientists who want to gain experience in the realm of scientific publishing to pre-screen manuscripts submitted to the Union's new online platform.
EGU is seeking scientists who want to gain experience in the realm of scientific publishing to pre-screen manuscripts submitted to the Union's new online platform.
The EGU has launched its latest international not-for-profit scientific publication. Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD) is an open-access, two-stage journal with open review, following the model of other EGU journals, and is published by Copernicus Publications.
The EGU has launched its latest international not-for-profit scientific publication. Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD) is an open-access, two-stage journal with open review, following the model of other EGU journals, and is published by Copernicus Publications.
