Barotropic stationary states and persistent anomalies in the atmosphere

Abstract

A robust algorithm, capable of finding nearly stationary solutions of the unforced barotropic vorticity equation near to observed atmospheric streamfunctions, is presented. When applied to observed persistent anomaly patterns, the nearly stationary states (NSSs) produced by the algorithm usually have a distinctive appearance. NSSs produced for observed blocks tend to have even stronger blocks, and NSSs for intense jet anomaly patterns have intense jets. When applied to observed patterns that are not associated with persistent anomalies, the algorithm produces low-amplitude relatively zonal NSSs. The blocking and intense jet anomaly NSSs bear a striking resemblance to previously derived analytic stationary solutions of the vorticity equation. In particular, NSS blocking states are similar to certain types of modons. -from Author