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Method for Identifying and Clustering Rossby Wave Breaking Events in the Northern Hemisphere

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Abstract

Many large-scale dynamic phenomena in the Earth’s atmosphere are associated with the processes of propagation and breaking of Rossby waves. A new method for identifying the Rossby wave breaking (RWB) is proposed. It is based on the detection of breakings centers by analyzing the shape of the contours of potential vorticity or temperature on quasimaterial surfaces: isentropic and iserthelic (surfaces of constant Ertel potential vorticity (PV)), with further RWB center clustering to larger regions. The method is applied to the set of constant PV levels (0.3 to 9.8 PVU with a step of 0.5 PVU) at the level of potential temperature of 350 K for 12:00 UTC. The ERA-Interim reanalysis data from 1979 to 2019 are used for the method development. The type of RWB (cyclonic/anticyclonic), its area and center are determined by analyzing the vortex geometry at each PV level for every day. The RWBs obtained at this stage are designated as elementary breakings. Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise algorithm (DBSCAN) was applied to all elementary breakings for each month. As a result, a graphic dataset describing locations and dynamics of RWBs for every month from 1979 to 2019 is formed. The RWB frequency is also evaluated for each longitude, taking into account the duration of each RWB and the number of levels involved, as well as the anomalies of these parameters.

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Funding

The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 19-17-00248 “Hydrodynamic Instability and Large-scale Vortex Dynamics of the Atmosphere in a Changing Climate”). The testing of the DBSCAN algorithm parameters was partly supported by the infrastructure of Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics (Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences) developed and operating according to the Governmental Assignment AААА-А17-117021310142-5, including the Atmosfera Common Use Center.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Siberian Regional Research Hydrometeorological Institute, 630099, Novosibirsk, Russia

    A. V. Gochakov & V. N. Krupchatnikov

  2. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119017, Moscow, Russia

    A. V. Gochakov, V. N. Krupchatnikov & Yu. V. Martynova

  3. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 634021, Tomsk, Russia

    O. Yu. Antokhina

  4. Institute of Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Geophysics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia

    V. N. Krupchatnikov

  5. Institute of Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 634055, Tomsk, Russia

    Yu. V. Martynova

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  1. A. V. Gochakov
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  2. O. Yu. Antokhina
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  3. V. N. Krupchatnikov
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Correspondence to A. V. Gochakov.

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Russian Text ©The Author(s), 2021, published in Meteorologiya i Gidrologiya, 2021, No. 1, pp. 17-28.

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Gochakov, A.V., Antokhina, O.Y., Krupchatnikov, V.N. et al. Method for Identifying and Clustering Rossby Wave Breaking Events in the Northern Hemisphere. Russ. Meteorol. Hydrol. 46, 10–18 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3103/S1068373921010027

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