The Signature of the Midlatitude Tropospheric Storm Tracks in the Surface Winds

Abstract

Abstract Storm-track analysis is applied to the meridional winds at 10 m and 850 hPa for the winters of 1999–2006. The analysis is focused on the North Atlantic and North Pacific Ocean basins and the Southern Ocean spanning the region south of the Indian Ocean. The spatial patterns that emerge from the analysis of the 850-hPa winds are the typical free-tropospheric storm tracks. The spatial patterns that emerge from the analysis of the surface winds differ from the free-tropospheric storm tracks. The spatial differences between the surface and free-tropospheric storm tracks can be explained by the influence of the spatial variability in the instability of the atmospheric boundary layer. Strongly unstable boundary layers allow greater downward mixing of free-tropospheric momentum (momentum mixing), and this may be the cause of the stronger surface storm tracks in regions with greater instability in the time mean. Principal component analysis suggests that the basin-scale variability that is reflected in the storm-track signature is the same for the free-tropospheric and surface winds. Separating the data based on the boundary layer stability shows that the surface storm track has a local maximum in the region of maximum instability, even when there is no local maximum in the free-tropospheric storm track above the region. The spatial patterns of the surface storm tracks suggest a positive feedback for storm development as follows: 1) an existing storm generates strong free-tropospheric wind variability, 2) the momentum mixing of the unstable boundary layers acts to increase the ocean–atmosphere energy fluxes, and 3) the fluxes precondition the lower atmosphere for subsequent storm development.