Quantifying the annular mode dynamics in an idealized atmosphere

TL;DR

This study uses an idealized GCM to quantify how eddy fluxes and physical processes influence the annular mode's persistence, highlighting the importance of the baroclinic component over the barotropic mechanism.

Contribution

It provides a detailed quantification of physical process contributions to annular mode dynamics using the linear response function in an idealized GCM.

Findings

Eddy feedback increases annular mode persistence by over two times.

Barotropic component alone suppresses eddy generation, reducing persistence.

Baroclinic component is crucial for the annular mode's persistence.

Abstract

The linear response function (LRF) of an idealized GCM, the dry dynamical core with Held-Suarez physics, is used to accurately compute how eddy momentum and heat fluxes change in response to the zonal wind and temperature anomalies of the annular mode at the low-frequency limit. Using these results and knowing the parameterizations of surface friction and thermal radiation in Held-Suarez physics, the contribution of each physical process (meridional and vertical eddy fluxes, surface friction, thermal radiation, and meridional advection) to the annular mode dynamics is quantified. Examining the quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity balance, it is shown that the eddy feedback is positive and increases the persistence of the annular mode by a factor of more than two. Furthermore, how eddy fluxes change in response to only the barotropic component of the annular mode, i.e., vertically averaged zonal wind (and no temperature) anomaly, is also calculated similarly. The response of eddy fluxes to the barotropic-only component of the annular mode is found to be drastically different from the response to the full (barotropic+baroclinic) annular mode anomaly. In the former, the barotropic governor effect significantly suppresses the eddy generation leading to a negative eddy feedback that decreases the persistence of the annular mode by nearly a factor of three. These results suggest that the baroclinic component of the annular mode anomaly, i.e., the increased low-level baroclinicity, is essential for the persistence of the annular mode, consistent with the baroclinic mechanism but not the barotropic mechanism proposed in the previous studies.