Extratropical storm tracks and the mean state of the atmosphere

The exact impacts of changes in the mean state of the atmosphere on the high-frequency phenomena that form the extratropical atmospheric circulation are uncertain. The extratropical storm tracks, regions of frequent extratropical cyclones, dominate weather in the extratropics, affecting the lives and livelihoods of billions of people. The results presented in this thesis connect changes in the mean state of the atmosphere to changes in the extratropical storm tracks. The Northern Hemisphere summer extratropical storm track has weakened in observations over the satellite era, while evidence indicates convective precipitation in the extratropics has concurrently increased. Using the concept of mean available potential energy (MAPE) partitioned into nonconvective and convective components, the second chapter of this thesis demonstrates that the changes in storm track strength and convection are consistent with changes in the temperature and humidity structure of the atmosphere.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Gertler, Charles Garrison.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ronald G. Prinn and Paul A. O'Gorman.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses may be protected by copyright. Please reuse MIT thesis content according to the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy, which is available through the URL provided.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129058

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/129058