Atmospheric Extratropical Dynamics
From Isidoro Orlanski 2007: The rationale for why climate models should adequately resolve the mesoscale In High Resolution Numerical Modelling of the Atmosphere and Ocean, New York, NY, Springer-Verlag, 29-44.
Storm tracks are the back bone of weather and climate in the extra-tropical regions of the globe. The storm tracks are where daily weather is generated. Their structure helps generate the flow patterns that we see in the larger scale circulations of the atmosphere and oceans, helping to shape the global climate.
It is well known that small scale features in the orography of the
Earth\'s surface, features that are sub-grid scale in global atmospheric
models, can generate substantial drag on the west-to-east flow in the
mid-latitude atmosphere, modifying the atmospheric circulation in
important ways. We are working to improve representation of this effect
in our models.
Expansion/contraction of the circulation in response to global warming and the ozone hole
Observations suggest that the mid-latitude surface westerlies have moved
polewards in recent decades, most clearly in the Southern Hemisphere.
Models indicate that both increasing ocean surface temperatures and the
ozone hole are capable of generating shift. The dynamical mechanisms by
which both of these agents cause the circulation to expand polewards
are being investigated
Polar lows and the meteorology over the sub-polar North Atlantic
