Journal article
The Role of Extratropical Cyclones and Fronts for Southern Ocean Freshwater Fluxes
Lukas Papritz, Stephan Pfahl, Irina Rudeva, Ian Simmonds, Harald Sodemann, Heini Wernli
Journal of Climate | AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC | Published : 2014
Abstract
In this study, the important role of extratropical cyclones and fronts for the atmospheric freshwater flux over the Southern Ocean is analyzed. Based on the Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim), the freshwater flux associated with cyclones is quantified and it is revealed that the structure of the Southern Hemispheric storm track is strongly imprinted on the climatological freshwater flux. In particular, during austral winter the spiraliform shape of the storm track leads to a band of negative freshwater flux bending toward and around Antarctica, complemented by a strong freshwater input into the midlatitude Pacific, associated with the split storm track. The interannual variability of th..
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Awarded by ETH Research Grant
Funding Acknowledgements
MeteoSwiss and the ECMWF are acknowledged for providing access to the ERA-Interim data. We thank D. Byrne, N. Gruber, M. Munnich, and I. Frenger for helpful discussions and comments. The thoughtful comments by L. Talley and two anonymous reviewers greatly helped to improve the manuscript. L. Papritz acknowledges support by ETH Research Grant CH2-01 11-1. Parts of this research were made possible by a grant from the Australian Research Council.