Abstract:

Synoptic-scale eddy variance and fluxes of heat and momentum in midlatitude jets are sensitive to small changes in mean jet velocity, dissipation, and static stability. In this work the change in the jet producing the greatest increase in variance or flux is determined. Remarkably, a single jet structure change completely characterizes the sensitivity of a chosen quadratic statistical quantity to modification of the mean jet in the sense that an arbitrary change in the jet influences a chosen statistical quantity in proportion to the projection of the change on this single optimal structure. The method used extends previous work in which storm track statistics were obtained using a stochastic model of jet turbulence.