Wildfires and drought in the western U.S., heavy snow and severe cold in the eastern U.S. There was a reason [Now is a climate crisis]

In the United States alone, droughts and wildfires are occurring in the West, while extreme weather such as extreme cold and heavy snow are occurring in the East. Against this backdrop, research results have been released that the cause is 'planetary waves' caused by global warming. As the Earth has heated up, the atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere has been amplified. Research results have been released that



extreme weather phenomena such as droughts, heavy rains, and cold waves will occur frequently in the mid-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere, which will become even hotter as global warming accelerates.



A fire in Los Angeles, USA, as captured by a US and European Space Agency satellite. A huge plume of smoke is spreading toward the Pacific Ocean. [Photo = NASA]



The Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST, President Lim Ki-chul) has discovered, through a joint research between Korea and the US, the phenomenon and key mechanism of large-scale atmospheric flow (planetary waves) that directly affect the weather in the Northern Hemisphere in winter, which is gradually amplified in a future warm climate. The impact of future climate change on the atmospheric circulation in winter has been clarified.



Planetary waves are large-scale (magnitude 5,000 km or more) wind systems commonly observed in the atmosphere of planets, such as belt-shaped winds. They are long-wave waves that occur mainly in the upper troposphere in mid-latitudes. By



revealing the fundamental causal relationship of why climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, etc. causes extreme weather and climate phenomena to be more concentrated in specific regions, the research team has laid the foundation for a more systematic understanding and forecast of future climate development patterns.



Using a global climate model experiment (analyzing experiments for points where the temperature increased by 1, 2, and 3 degrees from 1920 to 1949. The 3-degree point corresponds to approximately 2080), the research team predicted that rising sea surface temperatures and decreasing sea ice in the Arctic would further strengthen large-scale winter atmospheric flows. They pointed out the strengthening of the convection system due to warming in the equatorial western Pacific as the main cause of this phenomenon.



The research team discovered that the strengthening and northward expansion of mid-latitude westerly winds play a key role in the amplification of large-scale winter atmospheric flow. The strengthened westerly winds act as a conduit for wave energy generated in the equatorial western Pacific to propagate northeastward.



The decrease in sea ice in the Arctic, in addition, has a complementary effect, amplifying the overall northern hemisphere atmospheric circulation.



Heavy snowfall in the eastern United States. Photographed by a NASA satellite. [Photo = NASA]



This amplified atmospheric circulation was found to have a particularly large impact on winter weather in North America. It was confirmed that this is closely related to the recent frequent wildfires and droughts in the western United States and the extreme heavy snowfall and cold weather in the eastern region by developing a high pressure in the western United States and a low pressure trough in the eastern region.



Professor Jin-ho Yoon said, "The significance of this study is that it integrates the main mechanisms of atmospheric circulation changes suggested by previous researchers into one and provides a more systematic explanation of the recently observed atmospheric circulation amplification phenomenon and its dynamical causal relationship." He continued, "This phenomenon may become more extreme in the future, causing serious climate risks, so we must hurry and thoroughly prepare for it."



This study (paper title: Amplification of Northern Hemisphere winter stationary waves in a warming world), supervised by Professor Jin-ho Yoon of the Department of Environmental and Energy Engineering at GIST and participated by doctoral student Joo-eun Lee, was published online in the international journal 'Climate and Atmospheric Science' on January 17.





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