Role of the low-frequency deformation field on the explosive growth of extratropical cyclones at the jet exit.: Part I:: Barotropic critical region

By using new theoretical results on perturbation growth in spatially and temporally complex quasigeostrophic flows, this paper investigates the role of the large-scale deformation field on extratropical cyclones and especially on their explosive growth in the jet-exit region. Theoretical ideas are tested by decomposing the atmospheric flow into a high- and a low-frequency part and by analyzing four-dimensional variational data assimilation ( 4DVAR) reanalysis data of the Fronts and Atlantic Storm-Track Experiment ( FASTEX) during February 1997 as well as reanalysis data for the end of December 1999. Regions where the low-frequency deformation magnitude is greater than the absolute value of the low-frequency vorticity are shown to correspond to regions where synoptic disturbances at the same level tend to be located. These regions in the upper troposphere are intrinsically related to the horizontal inhomogeneities of the low-frequency large-scale upper-tropospheric jet but cannot be detected by looking separately at the deformation or vorticity. Transitions from one such large-scale region to the next furthermore can be accompanied by a sudden change of the dilatation axes orientation: this combination defines a barotropic critical region ( BtCR). Reasons why a BtCR is a specific place where barotropic development is likely to occur are exposed. Two very differently located BtCR regions in two apparently similar zonal-like weather regimes are shown to be the preferred regions where synoptic eddies tend to cross the jet from the south to the north. BtCRs are also special regions where constructive association between barotropic and baroclinic processes is favored, indeed constrained to cooperate. This is illustrated through the detailed analysis of the last growth stage of Intensive Observation Period 17 ( IOP17) of FASTEX. It happens precisely around a BtCR area located in the jet-exit region. Two processes explain this IOP17 development; one involves the barotropic generation rate resulting from the low crossing the BtCR and the other one is baroclinic interaction, which is strongly maintained far away from the baroclinicity maximum because of the new favorable baroclinic configuration resulting from the first process.