Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have found a link between rain in Asia and a jet stream in the Southern Hemisphere. Such atmospheric currents can affect the weather around the globe.
Using modern computer simulations, the team explored local and global conditions simultaneously. The model allows you to zoom in on some areas while maintaining a bird's eye view of others. The application of variable resolution modeling is the first documented study examining the relationship of local turbulent shears of clouds and storms (convection) to global air patterns in the other hemisphere.
Using the example of the relationship between weather and climate, scientists have seen in action how what happens in one corner of the world can affect another region. It turns out that heavy rain in Asia can lead to a displacement of the jet stream and changes in weather conditions in the Southern Hemisphere. The researchers called this a "high-level" effect, similar to the El Niño in the Pacific, affecting the weather in the United States. The ability to model the relationship between local and global processes is an important part of understanding weather and climate.
Researchers at PNNL and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in China studied high-level effects in the Model for Prediction Across Scale ("MPAS"). Most of the model uses a coarse level of detail, and is raised in selected locations in Asia, South America, and North America.
The influence of local processes on global ones took place through the Hadley cell and Rossby waves. The first phenomenon is the circulation of air masses, in which hot air rises near the equator, moves to the pole, cools, and then sinks back to the surface. The undulating movements in the atmosphere, named after the Swedish geophysicist, are caused by the rotation of the Earth.
The team concluded that the results in this model are similar to a high-resolution global simulation, maintaining high levels of detail across the planet. However, the variable resolution model produces high quality results with significantly less time and cost. This can help improve large-scale modeling, including identifying relationships between conditions and processes at different points on the Earth.
Scientists are going to explore areas with high resolution, increasing their detail up to several kilometers. This resolution allows atmospheric processes to be reflected even more realistically, which should improve the understanding of how small processes can affect large ones.
