Teleconnection between Subtropical Convection and Higher Latitude Wave Activity in the Atlantic

Rossby waves are waves in potential vorticity that propagate along the extratropical tropopause and can be impacted by the advection of low-PV air originating from the subtropics. In this study, the subtropical precipitation influence on the extratropical Rossby wave activity during the Atlantic winter season is investigated for a ten year period. Using both TRMM and TIGGE 12-Hr forecasted precipitation data, heavy precipitation events were identified near the footprints regions of warm conveyor belts in the northern Atlantic, specifically in the Gulf of Mexico and Bermuda region. The extratropical Rossby waves were then analyzed using PV on a 320K surface. By use of wavelet transforms, the amplitude of the Rossby waves were analyzed as a function of wavelength and longitude. The interaction between a single heavy precipitation event and the extratropical Rossby waves was examined for the days preceding and the week following the event. A climatological analysis of heavy precipitation events was conducted on the winter seasons from 2006 - 2015. Case study and climatological analysis identified the following: A ridge in the Northern Atlantic undergoes amplification downstream of the heavy precipitation event in the days following the event. A southerly flow, likely associated with a warm conveyor belt, connects the region of the heavy precipitation event and the extratropical tropopause. The interaction was most prominent during the late winter season and during the heaviest of precipitation events. The teleconnection identified in this study highlights a mechanism by which cloud-scale subtropical precipitation is connected to synoptic scale extratropical dynamics in the Atlantic.