Orographic Constraints on a Modeled Siberian Snow–Tropospheric–Stratospheric Teleconnection Pathway

Previous modeling studies have identified a teleconnection pathway linking observation-based early season Siberian snow perturbations to a modulation of the winter Arctic Oscillation (AO) mode. In this study, the key role of orography in producing this modeled teleconnection is explicitly investigated using numerical experiments analogous to the previous studies. The climatic response to the same snow perturbation is investigated under modified orographic barriers in southern and eastern Siberia. Reducing these barriers results in a weakening of the prevailing orographically forced region of stationary wave activity centered over Siberia, as well as the snow-forced upward wave flux anomaly that initiates the teleconnection. This diminished anomaly propagates upward, but does not extend into the stratosphere to weaken the polar vortex. Consequently, poleward refraction of upper-tropospheric waves and downward propagation of coupled wave–mean flow anomalies, which ultimately produce the negative winter AO response, fail to develop. Thus, the mountains represent an orographic constraint on the snow–AO teleconnection pathway. By reducing the orographic barrier, the snow-forced influx of wave energy remains in the troposphere and, instead, produces a hemispheric-scale equatorward wave refraction.