Covariation of Finite-Amplitude Wave Activity and the Zonal-Mean Flow in the Midlatitude Troposphere. Part II: Eddy Forcing Spectra and the Periodic Behavior in the Southern Hemisphere Summer

Abstract

reviously, in Part I of this study, the authors used latitude-by-latitude budgets of the vertically integrated finite-amplitude wave activity (FAWA) to describe the covariation of the zonal-mean state and eddy amplitude. In the austral summer within 40°?55°S, FAWA exhibits a marked 20?30-day periodicity driven mainly by the low-level meridional eddy heat flux, consistent with the recently identified baroclinic annular mode (BAM).The present article examines the spectra of eddy heat flux that produce the periodic behavior in the Southern Hemisphere storm track. Analysis of the ERA-Interim product reveals that the 20?30-day periodicity in raw FAWA and eddy heat flux is particularly robust during the warm season. A dry GCM is shown to reproduce qualitatively BAM-like eddy heat flux spectra if the zonal-mean state resembles that of the austral summer and if the surface thermal damping is sufficiently strong. The observed eddy heat flux cospectra in summer contain a few dominant frequencies for each of the energy-containing zonal wavenumbers (4?6). The corresponding Fourier modes are heat transporting but neutral, with slightly different meridional structures. As these modes travel at different phase speeds they interfere with each other and produce an amplitude modulation to the eddy heat flux with a periodicity consistent with the BAM. The meridionally confined baroclinic zone in the mean state of the austral summer provides a waveguide that directs the mode propagation and interference along the latitude circle. However, the processes that give rise to the quasi-discrete Fourier modes remain to be identified.