#rossby waves

Oh, look, a semi-stationary Rossby Wave has formed in the northern hemisphere jetstream this summer. See the alternating blue cold anomalies with orange red hot anomalies across the northern hemisphere - when you warm the climate, one of the things that happens is the westerly jet streams, the planet circling high altitude circular winds at mid to high latitudes, that separate the polar vortexes from warmer subtropical and tropical air, is pushed towards the poles, and weakens. When it weakens, it meanders more, and the meandering becomes less random, and more likely to stall and the meanders stay in one place for longer. Which means high and low pressure systems get stuck in the curves and hang around for longer, hence those hot spots and cold spots in this plot, hanging around, holding extreme weather systems in place for days, even weeks.

We _really_ need to stop burning fossil fuels, and engage in a global, WW2 level mobilisation of national excess capacity of any sort for biological carbon fixing. All the carbon fixing. We need at least 50ppm, and preferably 150-200 ppm of carbon dioxide out of the atomosphere, stat, and in long term bio or geo storage fast. I don't just mean grow a few forests then cut them down for furniture in thirty years once you've farmed the carbon credits, I mean leave them there, but also every single bit of spare capacity and land that can grow and store carbon, needs to be encouraged to do so, and carbon bearing biomass that may let it escape needs to be charcoaled and chucked in the bottom of a stratified anoxic water body of size (The Black sea will do, or any other stratified anoxic water body).

Rossby waves are an atmospheric and oceanic phenomenon where giant meanders warp the flow of currents in a wave-like pattern. They don't only occur on Earth, but when they do, they're known to influence our planet's weather.

Now, the extent of that influence is becoming clearer. In a new study, researchers have found that when certain amplified wavelengths take shape in jet streams – fast-flowing air currents that course through the sky at high altitudes – the phenomenon is linked to the emergence of concurrent heatwaves that devastate food-producing regions.

(NASA/Goddard)  Rossby Waves on the Sun Could Aid in Space Weather Prediction

To predict weather on a planet, we look at Rossby waves, large movement patterns in the atmosphere, like the jet stream. Just as on Earth, the conditions on the sun are constantly changing. This is why scientists were excited to discover Rossby waves on the sun. On the sun, the waves are driven by magnetic currents below the surface. Monitoring these waves and the disturbances they generate could help us make better long-term space weather predictions.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Genna Duberstein Music Credit: Grand Design by Michael Conn 

Waves on sun give NASA new insight into space weather forecasting

Our sun is a chaotic place, simmering with magnetic energy and constantly spewing out particles. Sometimes the sun releases solar flares and coronal mass ejections - huge eruptions of charged particles - which contribute to space weather and can interfere with satellites and telecommunications on Earth. While it has long been hard to predict such events, new research has uncovered a mechanism that may help forecasting these explosions.

The research finds a phenomenon similar to a common weather system seen on our own planet. Weather on Earth reacts to the influence of jet streams, which blow air in narrow currents around the globe.

These atmospheric currents are a type of Rossby wave, movements driven by the planet's rotation. Using comprehensive imaging of the entire sun with data from the NASA heliophysics Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory - STEREO - and Solar Dynamics Observatory - SDO - scientists have now found proof of Rossby waves on the sun.

The results, published in a new article in Nature Astronomy may allow for long-term space weather forecasting, thus helping better protect satellites and manned missions vulnerable to high-energy particles released from solar activity.

Read more ~ SpaceDaily

Jet streams are channels of fast-moving wind that circle the globe at an altitude of about 10 km (6.2 mi), and are responsible for driving large-scale weather systems. But sometimes they can meander off-course, creating patterns known as Rossby waves. Normally these clear up fairly quickly but occasionally they can stick around longer, in turn exacerbating weather systems by drawing them out over weeks. That means a few warm days can drag into a heatwave, while rainy days can turn into rainy weeks, leading to flooding.

New Post has been published on https://www.reekoscience.com/science-news/weather/how-does-global-warming-cause-changes-to-our-normal-weather-patterns

How does global warming cause changes to our normal weather patterns?

Schematic of the control volume considered when deriving the governing equation for a QG flow. Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Science (2018). DOI: 10.1098/rspa.2018.0119    

A doctoral student at the University of Cambridge has come up with a possible explanation for the westward drift of the Earth's magnetic field. In his paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, O.P. Bardsley suggests it may be due to Rossby waves generated in the Earth's Core.

Humans first became aware of the Earth's magnetic field over 400 years ago, and since that time, have been taking measurements of it. As time passed, it became clear that the field was moving in a westerly direction—and nobody knew why. The actual reason is still not known—Bardsley is proposing a new idea: Somehow, Rossby waves in the Earth's outer core cause the magnetic drift.

Prior efforts to explain the westward drift have also involved the outer core—one theory suggests that it has a gyre, similar in some respects to the jet stream. If so, it could be dragging the magnetic field as it moves slowly westward. The problem with that theory, Bardsley notes, is that no one has ever found any other evidence of a gyre in the outer core. He suggests Rossby waves make more sense.

Rossby waves are slow and arise when fluids rotate. Because they are generated by most planets, some scientists have taken to calling them planetary waves. Rossby waves on Earth are generated in several places—in the oceans, the atmosphere and the outer core. It is those generated by the fluid in the outer core that Bardsley suggests might be pushing the magnetic field. But there is one major problem: The outer core generates wave crests that move east, not west. Bardsley suggests that this may not be a problem after all—he notes that some ocean waves with crests moving in one direction expend energy in the opposite direction. If that is the case with outer core Rossby waves, he suggests, they could be pushing the magnetic field. He notes that current technology only allows for measuring the energy of the magnetic field in a general sense, not the small details. Much more research is required, he acknowledges, before his theory can be tested, much less proven right or wrong.