Główne cechy cyrkulacji atmosfery nad Spitsbergenem (XII.1950 - IX.2006]

Praca omawia najważniejsze zmiany jakie zachodziły w cyrkulacji atmosfery nad Spitsbergenem w latach 1950–2006. Po analizie zmienności typów i wskaźników cyrkulacji Niedźwiedzia stwierdzono wyraźny wzrost wartości wskaźnika cyrkulacji zachodniej (zwłaszcza latem i zimą) i południowej (głównie zimą i latem) oraz wzrost aktywności niżów we wszystkich porach roku, a zwłaszcza w zimie. Gwałtowny wzrost intensywności cyrkulacji południowej, który wystąpił w styczniu i kwietniu 2006 r. zaznaczył się dużymi anomaliami termicznymi (12.4–12.6K powyżej średniej wieloletniej). Być może rok 2006 stanie się najcieplejszym w całym okresie obserwacji instrumentalnych temperatury na Spitsbergenie.

The study presents variability of 21 circulation types and simple circulation indices above Spitsbergen for the period December 1950 – September 2006, based on original calendar of synoptic divided from the synoptic maps (Niedźwiedź 1992, 1997a). Classification of circulation types, based on method of H.H. Lamb (1972), used the direction of airflow (gradient wind) and pressure pattern (a – anticyclonic, c – cyclonic) as the main elements. After calculation of synoptic types frequencies the further results have been obtained using the simple circulation indices: W – westerly, zonal index, S – southerly – meridional index, C – cyclonicity index, as proposed by R. Murray and R. Lewis (1966) with some modifications (Niedźwiedź 1997b, 2001). The anticyclonic wedge (Ka – 10.5%) was the most frequent synoptic situation in the Spitsbergen (Table 1). The second one is circulation type Ec (9.9%) and NEc (8.7%). Weather and climate of Spitsbergen was modelled by the intense cyclonic activity during 56% of the days in a year (Fig. 1). The largest frequency of cyclonic types was noticed in November (67%). For May was typical the maximum frequency of the high pressure systems (59.7%). The annual variability of different airflows above Spitsbergen is presented on the Figures 2–5. The negative value of W index is typical for Spitsbergen, according to great frequency of eastern airflow (Table 2, Fig. 6). The great intensity of eastern airflow was observed from October to April, the weakest – during summer months. For the last 56 years was observed the increased tendency of index W. The most intense of southerly circulation index S was noticed on 1984–1994 (Table 3, Fig. 7). Positive trend was observed for winter, spring and summer. Only in autumn the tendency of S index was negative. For the Spitsbergen is typical predomination of cyclonic patterns (annual value of index C is +60), with highest values of index C from September to March (Table 4, Fig. 8). Only in May index C is negative (–10) thanks to great activity of anticyclones. For the last 56 years was observed the increasing activity of cyclonic weather above the Spitsbergen. For the last three years (2004–2006) was typical the concentration of extreme intensity of the particular forms of circulation, mainly in southerly one.