Energetics of an Intensifying jet streak during the Experiment on Rapidly Intensifying Cyclones over the Atlantic (ERICA)

Upper-tropospheric jet streaks are defined as localized wind speed maxima within the jet stream and thus correspond to local maxima of total kinetic energy. Since the orientation of the dilatation axes for the time-mean flow during the 3-month ERICA period is similar to that observed for the low-frequency flow on interannual timescales, jet streaks in northwesterly flow over central North America are shown to be configured favorably for the growth of EKE when a ridge is located over western North America.