Predictability of North Pacific blocking events: Analogue‐based analysis of historical MIROC6 simulations

Abstract Atmospheric blocking exerts a profound influence on midlatitude circulation, yet its predictability remains elusive, due to intrinsic nonlinearities and sensitivity to initial conditions. While blocking dynamics have been extensively studied, the impact of geographical positioning on predictability remains largely unexplored. This study provides a comparative assessment of the predictability of western and eastern North Pacific blocking events, leveraging analogue‐based diagnostics applied to Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate, version 6 (MIROC6) simulations. Blocking structures are identified using geopotential height gradient reversal, with their temporal evolution analyzed through trajectory tracking and error growth metrics. Results reveal that eastern blocks exhibit lower predictability, characterized by rapid error divergence and increased mean logarithmic growth rates compared with western blocks. Persistence analysis gives no significant difference between eastern and western North Pacific blocking events. Sensitivity analyses across varying detection thresholds validate the robustness of these findings.

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Publication Details

Journal
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
Published
2026-01-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.70104
Primary Topic
Climate variability and models
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Predictability of North Pacific blocking events: Analogue‐based analysis of historical MIROC6 simulations

Anupama K Xavier, Oisín Hamilton, Stéphane Vannitsem, Davide Faranda
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
Climate variability and models
article

Predictability of North Pacific blocking events: Analogue‐based analysis of historical MIROC6 simulations

Anupama K Xavier, Oisín Hamilton, Stéphane Vannitsem, Davide Faranda
article en

Abstract

Abstract Atmospheric blocking exerts a profound influence on midlatitude circulation, yet its predictability remains elusive, due to intrinsic nonlinearities and sensitivity to initial conditions. While blocking dynamics have been extensively studied, the impact of geographical positioning on predictability remains largely unexplored. This study provides a comparative assessment of the predictability of western and eastern North Pacific blocking events, leveraging analogue‐based diagnostics applied to Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate, version 6 (MIROC6) simulations. Blocking structures are identified using geopotential height gradient reversal, with their temporal evolution analyzed through trajectory tracking and error growth metrics. Results reveal that eastern blocks exhibit lower predictability, characterized by rapid error divergence and increased mean logarithmic growth rates compared with western blocks. Persistence analysis gives no significant difference between eastern and western North Pacific blocking events. Sensitivity analyses across varying detection thresholds validate the robustness of these findings.

Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (BE), Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (FR), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR), London Mathematical Laboratory (GB), UCLouvain (BE)
European Commission
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 88%
Climate variability and models
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