Influences of ENSO SST Anomalies and Winter Storm Tracks on the Interannual Variability of Upper-Troposphere Water Vapor over the Northern Hemisphere Extratropics

Abstract

This study examines the interannual variability of winter upper-troposphere water vapor over the Northern Hemisphere using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Water Vapor Project, the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project data, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting reanalysis. The El Niño?Southern Oscillation related tropical sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies dominate the upper-troposphere water vapor anomalies south of the climatological jet. The anomalies of baroclinic instability in the storm track regions, which relate to the Pacific?North American and the North Atlantic oscillation patterns, dominate those north of the climatological jet. The upper-troposphere water vapor increases in the eastern tropical Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and some areas of the North Atlantic with warmer tropical SST. It decreases in the subtropical and extratropical northeastern Pacific. Deep convection and vertical moisture fluxes dominate these changes. To the north of the climatological jet, stronger upper-level cyclonic flow dries the upper troposphere when the baroclinicity of the storm tracks is enhanced. Both vertical and meridional moisture transport contribute to these water vapor anomalies in the midlatitudes. High clouds, as a possible source/sink of water vapor, respond to the tropical SST anomalies and extratropical circulation in a pattern similar to the upper-troposphere water vapor, and they consequently positively correlate to the latter. In the Tropics and extratropics where high clouds are relatively abundant, water vapor concentration increases with temperature. Thus, the increase of evaporation or sublimation of high clouds probably contributes to the observed moistening of the upper troposphere, in addition to enhanced vapor transport. Conversely, in the subtropics where high clouds appear infrequently, water vapor concentration decreases with temperature, suggesting that the downward advection of drier air associated with subsidence dominates the drying of the upper troposphere.