Seasonal Cycle of Southern Hemisphere Explosive Growth and Decay of Storms

Abstract

The seasonal variability of Southern Hemisphere (SH) synoptic-scale weather systems is analysed for the 20-year timespan 1997 to 2016. The relationships between the SH jet streams and storm tracks based on lower tropospheric circulation anomalies filtered into the high-pass (periods < 4 days) and band-pass (periods between 4 and 8 days) types are examined based on 6-hourly reanalysis data. Leading Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) and storm tracks based on all (growing and decaying) disturbances are determined. As well, the structure and standard deviations of streamfunction fluctuations are determined separately in three growth rate and three decay rate bins focusing on explosive growth and decay. In all cases, and in each season, the band-pass storm tracks are more zonally symmetric than the high-pass standard deviations and this is also reflected by the EOFs. Leading EOFs in both bands are monopole wavetrains of highs and lows located in the storm tracks with some band-pass disturbances having dipole structures consistent with blocking and northwest cloud bands. EOFs based on the bin with slow-growing fluctuations are structurally similar to the standard EOFs based on all disturbances. EOFs for moderately and explosively growing disturbances are increasingly displaced equatorward with a larger growth rate.