Isentropic analysis of polar cold air outbreaks

Friday, June 16, 2017 | 2pm, 417 Akasofu

Toshiki Iwasaki, Tohuku University

Polar cold air outbreaks are studied with a definition of cold air mass
below a threshold potential temperature of 280K.  It allows us to treat the
cold air mass as an adiabatically conservative material localized in the
extratropical troposphere.  There are two distinct cold streams in the
northern hemispheric winter, namely, the East Asian and North American streams.
The equatorward cold air mass flux consists of outbreak events that intermittently
occur under favorable synoptic situations.  In East Asia, cold air outbreaks
show interannual variability associated with the El Niño and the Southern Oscillation.

For more information, contact Nate Bauer ().