Baroclinic Blocking

Abstract Atmospheric blocking events, which cause abnormal weather conditions, have been studied from a viewpoint of quasi‐stationary barotropic circulation systems because their apparent lack vertical tilt. However, this work demonstrates that events often such structure anomalies in geopotential height and temperature are horizontally out‐of‐phase, allowing to produce fluxes heat against the climatological‐mean gradients for amplifying maintaining blocking‐related anomalies. This process, represents baroclinic conversion energy flow anomalies, is shown be one leading sources through an analysis energetics. In winter, contribution conversion, especially North Pacific Greenland blocks, substantially larger than contributions feedback forcing by high‐frequency eddies. summer, eddies more comparable magnitude.