Abstract
Arctic amplification has been proposed to promote temperature extremes by slowing the midlatitude jet and increasing the amplitude of its meanders. Observational and modeling studies have used a variety of metrics to quantify jet waviness. These studies show conflicting changes in jet waviness depending on the metric used and period examined. Here, we evaluate common metrics for dry idealized model simulations in which we apply polar warming of varying depth and meridional extent. In all simulations, polar warming increases the spatial extent of jet meanders, but reduces the magnitudes of ridges and troughs within the wave. As a result, geometric and anomaly‐amplitude measures of jet waviness can yield opposing responses. This contrast between metrics is particularly evident when warming extends into the midlatitudes. In all simulations, midlatitude temperature anomalies weaken as the poles warm, suggesting that a wavier jet need not imply stronger temperature extremes.
Original language | English |
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Article number | e2023GL105132 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Geophysical Research Letters |
Volume | 50 |
Issue number | 21 |
Early online date | 2 Nov 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 16 Nov 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Acknowledgments:This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (Grant NE/V005855/1). We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the manuscript, and for the suggestion to evaluate the scalings shown in Figures 3i–3k.