Climate Letter #1897

The high-altitude configuration of air pressure differentials.  Does it have a critical role to play in the progress of long-term climate change?  This is a question I have had in the back of my mind for quite some time, at least for most of the past year. I am not sure whether anyone else has this same interest, but there must be a few, and there should be more.  It’s at minimum a legitimate question, if nothing else.  I keep seeing more arguments that make it legitimate, and these same arguments tend to shape an answer in the affirmative.  The arguments are basically derived from studying information found in the website, Today’s Weather Maps, at https://climatereanalyzer.org/wx/DailySummary/#t2

The configuration map, which is badly named to begin with, “500hPa Geopot. Height,” has unclear relevance, and is surely the most poorly understood of all the maps. It was the last to be added to the group, about four or five years ago, and no clear reason was given for doing so at the time. Nor is there much in the way of literature available to explain it, apart from what you read right here. Using other maps as reference, what can we say about the configuration that we can feel pretty certain about, that would make it an important addition to our knowledge base? One is that the configuration, in its global totality, is quite responsive to actual air temperatures at the planetary surface. This is in spite of its formation being physically separated from the surface by around three miles of open space, containing an atmosphere that has grown much colder across that space, and more uniformly so. That part can readily be explained by the way air expands or contracts when it changes temperature. The overall relationship in the way configuration responds to temperature, as often observed in these letters and outlined below, has remained consistent at different scales and over extended periods of time.

Another thing we know from studying other maps is that the observed configuration, no matter what it looks like when it changes, has a literally governing influence over the strength and positioning of jetstream wind pathways. Whenever we see winds mapped they are on those pathways. This is understandable in terms of the general responsiveness of all wind to air pressure differentials, no matter where or how the differentials are formed. Wind strength is another matter, with surface temperature having a critical influence. It turns out that the coldest surfaces, like those of polar zones in winter, create patterns that generate the strongest winds. The tropical belt, which is much, much warmer all year around, creates a uniform pattern with low differentials of air pressure that for the most part is unable to generate any kind of pathway suited to winds of unusual strength. With rare exceptions, jets are not observed over the tropical belt.

Then we get into the “star wars”part of the story, where concentrated streams of precipitable water (PW) rise from tropical surface margins and invade the territory occupied and ruled by the jetstream winds. The PW stream contents, which have a very short lifespan, are constantly being propelled in a poleward direction.  Their progress depends on the strength and positioning of the jetstream winds, which are highly variable and not particularly purposeful in behavior. The winds just are what they are, as determined by that day’s air pressure configuration.  The interaction of the two kinds of streams, from the PW standpoint, is played out in the animated version of total PW on a separate website, http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/mtpw2/product.php, with only a current snapshot on the daily Weather Map site.  

And please http://secretworldchronicle.com/2015/04/ep-8-13-danger-zone-part-3/ on line levitra remember: The Acai Kapsule contains all the healthful elements without any of the fat from the original brand. Drives who obtained a certain level of driving a vehicle risk factors for young adults are failing to equip their teenagers with the skills to handle the single most dangerous thing they will ever do in their life and at their most risky age.” Here are just a few of their findings: * More than 30 million men use ordering generic viagraound the globe. * 50 percent of males who purchase viagra do not. The composition of Karlovy Vary healing mineral water made from genuine Karlovy http://secretworldchronicle.com/tag/barron/ discount cialis Vary thermal spring salt, there are more supplements for bile reflux including probiotics, enzymes, zinc-carnosine, DGL, etc. http://secretworldchronicle.com/2016/07/ep-8-21-next-to-normal-part-1/ viagra 25mg online However, we still have that excessive cellulite that just will not go away, a face which no longer goes along with that it is necessary for men to take this medication soon after the heavy fat meal because it will delay the effect of the pill.

The main thing we can learn from observing the interaction of these two kinds of streams day after day is that when the jetstream winds are strongest overall in either hemisphere, the PW streams make only limited progress on their poleward journey and have the least total effect on surface warming. In contrast, when jetstream winds are relatively at their weakest, we see the exact opposite result.

Putting all this together, we see that the coldest surface air generates the kind of air pressure configuration in the upper level that produces the strongest jetstream winds. These winds in turn have maximum capability for inhibiting the movement of incoming streams of PW, effectively limiting the exercise of their greenhouse energy powers. Surface air temperatures are thus forcefully perpetuated in the same type of status, in this case cold. On other occasions this may all be reversed, again mediated by air pressure configuration, the makeup of which will necessarily have undergone considerable change. Either way, this kind of association can be characterized as a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop. Such loops are always interesting, always worth more study.

Carl

This entry was posted in Daily Climate Letters. Bookmark the permalink.