Multiple Flow Regimes in the Northern Hemisphere Winter. Part II: Sectorial Regimes and Preferred Transitions

Abstract

This paper presents an observational analysis of recurrent flow patterns in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter, based on a 37-year series of daily 700-mb height anomalies. Large-scale anomaly patterns that appear repeatedly and persist beyond synoptic time scales are identified by searching for local maxima of probability density in a phase subspace, which is spanned by the leading empirical orthogenal functions (EOFs). By using an angular probability density function (PDF), we focus on the shape, not magnitude, of the anomaly patterns. The PDF estimate is nonparametric; that is, our algorithm makes no a priori assumption on symmetry with respect to the climatological mean as in one-point correlation and rotated EOF analyses. The local density maxima are searched by iterative bump hunting. Based on observed partial decoupling between the Pacific (PAC) and the Atlantic-Eurasian (ATL) sectors, the classification algorithm is applied separately to each of the two. Seven PAC and six ATL patterns are obtained. Anomaly maps that belong to the neighborhood of each PDF peak are associated with distinct flow regimes. These include regional blocked and zonal flows, and wave train-like anomaly patterns, some of them well known from previous studies, others revealed by our analysis for the first time. Successive appearances of flow regimes are generally separated by unclassifiable, transient periods. A Markov chain describes transitions between different flow regimes; highly likely, as well as unlikely routes of transition exist. Chains of preferred transitions may be related to the existence of oscillatory modes in the NH extratropics. A synoptic characterization of onsets and breaks for the flow regimes obtained is given by compositing. In situ evolutions of anomaly patterns, slow westward shifts of high-latitude anomaly centers, and successive down-stream increase of anomaly magnitudes are the typical signatures of such events.