Southern Hemisphere Blocking Onsets Associated with Upper-Tropospheric Divergence Anomalies

Abstract

Upper-tropospheric divergence anomalies and divergence tendencies prior to and during the onset of blocking have been investigated for selected cases over the Southern Hemisphere in search of links between the upper-tropospheric response to tropical convective activity and the onset of blocking in midlatitudes. Climatologies of blocking, defined by an objective index, and divergence are established for the Southern Hemisphere and the southern Pacific, respectively. Relative blocking frequency versus longitude reveals a region of maximum blocking activity between 160°E and 75°W. Blocking frequencies for each ENSO phase indicate a shift toward the late austral fall and early winter during the warm phase, whereas during the cold and neutral phases the highest frequencies are in June and July, respectively. Composites of area-averaged divergence anomalies for the selected blocking cases reveal more anomalous divergence than during nonblocking periods over the blocking regions and the immediate upstream regions in midlatitudes. A full divergence tendency equation is utilized to diagnose the local development of divergence preceding the onset of blocking. Results indicate that divergence tendencies over midlatitudes in the block-onset region were forced primarily by horizontal advection, ageostrophic relative vorticity, and a nonlinear effect. In the region directly upstream from the block-onset region, ageostrophic relative vorticity had the greatest contribution followed by the horizontal advection. In the Tropics, divergence tendencies appear to be driven primarily by horizontal advection. Correlations of calculated divergence tendencies with the blocking index suggest that ageostrophic vorticity may locally generate divergence that in turn may force anticyclonic vorticity associated with blocking. Lag correlations with a blocking index during blocking reveal the importance of horizontal advection in driving divergence anomalies, implying divergence-induced vorticities, toward the incipient block.