The Life Cycle of Baroclinic Eddies in a Storm Track Environment

Abstract The life cycle of baroclinic eddies in a controlled storm track environment has been examined by means of long model integrations on a hemisphere. A time-lagged regression that captures disturbances with large meridional velocities has been applied to the meteorological variables. This regressed solution is used to describe the life cycle of the baroclinic eddies. The eddies grow as expected by strong poleward heat fluxes at low levels in regions of strong surface baroclinicity at the entrance of the storm track, in a manner similar to that of Charney modes. As the eddies evolve into a nonlinear regime, they grow deeper by fluxing energy upward, and the characteristic westward tilt exhibited in the vorticity vanishes by rotating into a meridional tilt, in which the lower-level cyclonic vorticity center moves poleward and the upper-level center moves equatorward. This rather classical picture of baroclinic evolution is radically modified by the simultaneous development of an upper-level eddy downs...