Entry Date:
July 20, 2016

Cold Air Formation in Warmer Climates

Principal Investigator Timothy Cronin


Working with Eli Tziperman on the sensitivity of Arctic air formation to climate. The process of Arctic air formation is that by which high-latitude maritime air is transformed, by radiative cooling, into high-latitude continental air, which is much colder at the surface and often has temperature inversions. We submitted a paper based on idealized single-column modeling, in June 2015, suggesting that this process is highly sensitive to the ocean temperature at high latitudes, with warmer initial air masses cooling much less rapidly.