Influence of sea surface temperature on the European heat wave of 2003 summer. Part II: a modeling study

The Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies Atmospheric General Circulation Model is used to investigate the role of global boundary conditions of sea surface temperature (SST) in the establishment and maintenance of the European heat wave of 2003 summer. It is found that the global SST anomalies can explain many major features of the European heat wave during the summer of 2003. A further experiment has investigated the role of SST outside the Mediterranean area. This supplements the results of a previous study where the role of warm Mediterranean SST was analyzed. The results suggest that the SST anomalies had an additional effect of reducing the baroclinicity in the European area reinforcing the blocking circulation and helping to create ideal conditions for the establishment of the heat wave.

[1]  R. Newell,et al.  Influence of sea surface temperatures on air temperatures in the tropics , 1998 .

[2]  Pedro Viterbo,et al.  The European Summer of 2003: Sensitivity to Soil Water Initial Conditions , 2006 .

[3]  M. Colacino,et al.  Heat waves in the central Mediterranean. A synoptic climatology , 1995 .

[4]  R. Reynolds,et al.  The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project , 1996, Renewable Energy.

[5]  A. Tompkins,et al.  Response to the summer 2003 Mediterranean SST anomalies over , 2006 .

[6]  Piers J. Sellers,et al.  A Simplified Biosphere Model for Global Climate Studies , 1991 .

[7]  Pascal Yiou,et al.  Summertime European heat and drought waves induced by wintertime Mediterranean rainfall deficit , 2007 .

[8]  J. Shukla,et al.  Influence of sea surface temperature on the European heat wave of 2003 summer. Part I: an observational study , 2011 .

[9]  J. Shukla,et al.  Role of Mediterranean SST in enhancing the European heat wave of summer 2003 , 2007 .

[10]  A. Tompkins,et al.  Response to the Summer of 2003 Mediterranean SST Anomalies over Europe and Africa , 2006 .

[11]  W. Collins,et al.  The NCEP–NCAR 50-Year Reanalysis: Monthly Means CD-ROM and Documentation , 2001 .

[12]  Thomas M. Smith,et al.  An Improved In Situ and Satellite SST Analysis for Climate , 2002 .

[13]  S. Seneviratne,et al.  Land–atmosphere coupling and climate change in Europe , 2006, Nature.

[14]  E. Fischer,et al.  Soil Moisture–Atmosphere Interactions during the 2003 European Summer Heat Wave , 2007 .

[15]  D. Rowell.  The Impact of Mediterranean SSTs on the Sahelian Rainfall Season , 2003 .

[16]  T. D. Mitchell,et al.  An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high‐resolution grids , 2005 .

[17]  R. Sutton,et al.  The influence of oceanic conditions on the hot European summer of 2003 , 2006 .

[18]  A. Phillips,et al.  Tropical Atlantic Influence on European Heat Waves , 2005 .