Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Force Storms: Identifying Stratospheric Air Intrusions and the Effects of Hurricane Force Wind Events on the Iceberg Limit

Stratospheric air intrusions and associated hurricane-force wind events in the North Atlantic Ocean were analyzed using the combination of the Air Mass RGB, water vapor imagery, ozone anomaly data, and scatterometer wind data. Three high impact events from late March to mid-April 2017 were studied to assess the role of stratospheric intrusions on the evolution of explosive cyclogenesis and associated hurricane-force winds. Previous work has suggested that the dry, descending air observed in water vapor imagery and in the Air Mass RGB is coincident with the hurricane-force winds detected by scatterometers near the bent-back frontal region of a maturing cyclone. This paper seeks to show how combining water vapor and ozone analysis can be used to track the stratospheric component of the dry, descending air, thereby giving forecasters a traceable feature to predict the incipient stage of explosive cyclogenesis. An additional analysis was completed using the Arctic CAP Model and HYCOM to identify the impact these hurricane-force wind events had on the iceberg limit and sea ice migration out of the Davis Strait in the spring of 2017.