A Nonlinear Theory of Atmospheric Blocking: A Potential Vorticity Gradient View

In this paper, an extended nonlinear multiscale interaction model of blocking events in the equivalent barotropic atmosphere is used to investigate the effect of a slowly varying zonal wind in the meridional direction on dipole blocking that is regarded as a nonlinear Rossby wave packet. It is shown that the meridional gradient of potential vorticity (PVy=∂PV/∂y) prior to the blocking onset, which is related to the background zonal wind and its nonuniform meridional shear, can significantly affect the lifetime, intensity, and north–south asymmetry of dipole blocking, while the blocking dipole itself is driven by preexisting incident synoptic-scale eddies. The magnitude of the background PVy determines the energy dispersion and nonlinearity of blocking. It is revealed that a small background PVy is a prerequisite for strong and long-lived eddy-driven blocking that behaves as a persistent meandering westerly jet stream, while the blocking establishment further reduces the PVy within the blocking region, resulting in a positive feedback between blocking and PVy. When the core of the background westerly jet shifts from higher to lower latitudes, the blocking shows a northwest–southeast-oriented dipole with a strong anticyclonic anomaly to the northwest and a weak cyclonic anomaly to the southeast as its northern pole moves westward more rapidly and has weaker energy dispersion and stronger nonlinearity than its southern pole because of the smaller PVy in higher latitudes. The opposite is true when the background jet shifts toward higher latitudes. The asymmetry of dipole blocking vanishes when the background jet shows a symmetric double-peak structure. Thus, a small prior PVy is a favorable precursor for the occurrence of long-lived and large-amplitude blocking.