Review: the predictability of the extra-tropical stratosphere on monthly timescales and its impact on the skill of tropospheric forecasts

Tripathi, O. P., Baldwin, M., Charlton-Perez, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8179-6220, Charron, M., Eckermann, S. D., Gerber, E., Harrison, R. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0693-347X, Jackson, D. R., Kim, B.-M., Kuroda, Y., Lang, A., Mahmood, S., Mizuta, R., Roff, G., Sigmond, M. and Son, S.-W. (2015) Review: the predictability of the extra-tropical stratosphere on monthly timescales and its impact on the skill of tropospheric forecasts. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 141 (689). pp. 987-1003. ISSN 1477-870X doi: 10.1002/qj.2432 (Part B)

Abstract/Summary

Extreme variability of the winter- and spring-time stratospheric polar vortex has been shown to affect extratropical tropospheric weather. Therefore, reducing stratospheric forecast error may be one way to improve the skill of tropospheric weather forecasts. In this review, the basis for this idea is examined. A range of studies of different stratospheric extreme vortex events shows that they can be skilfully forecasted beyond five days and into the sub-seasonal range (0-30 days) in some cases. Separate studies show that typical errors in forecasting a stratospheric extreme vortex event can alter tropospheric forecasts skill by 5-7% in the extratropics on sub-seasonal timescales. Thus understanding what limits stratospheric predictability is of significant interest to operational forecasting centres. Both limitations in forecasting tropospheric planetary waves and stratospheric model biases have been shown to be important in this context.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/37400
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/qj.2432
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Royal Meteorological Society
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item