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Abstract Anomalously strong North Atlantic jets, defined in this study as jets with wind speeds exceeding 100 m·s⁻¹, are notable due to their potential to induce high‐impact weather. This study examines the kinematic processes that contribute to the intensification of anomalously strong North Atlantic jets, as well as the variability in those processes across a large number of events. Anomalously strong jets are objectively identified during September–May 1979–2018 within the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis and composited to reveal the synoptic‐scale flow evolution associated with jet intensification. The analysis demonstrates that anomalously strong North Atlantic jets are most frequent during the winter compared with the fall and spring, and that their development is preceded by low‐level warm‐air advection, poleward moisture advection, and moist ascent within the warm conveyor belt of a surface cyclone beneath the equatorward jet‐entrance region. A diagnosis of the irrotational and nondivergent components of the ageostrophic wind within the near‐jet environment reveals that both wind components facilitate jet intensification via their nonnegligible contributions to negative potential vorticity (PV) advection and PV frontogenesis in the vicinity of the dynamic tropopause. Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations of a jet event from December 2013 with and without latent heating further suggest that the ageostrophic wind field within the near‐jet environment is substantially modulated by latent heating. The foregoing results indicate that a diagnosis of jet intensification during anomalously strong jet events is dependent on an accurate representation of the cumulative effects of latent heating within the near‐jet environment. 

Abstract A polar–subtropical jet superposition is preceded by the development of a polar cyclonic potential vorticity (PV) anomaly at high latitudes and a tropical anticyclonic PV anomaly at subtropical latitudes. A confluent large-scale flow pattern can lead to the juxtaposition of these respective PV anomalies at middle latitudes, resulting in the addition of the nondivergent circulations induced by each PV anomaly and an increase in upper-tropospheric wind speeds at the location of jet superposition. Once these PV anomalies become juxtaposed, vertical motion within the near-jet environment facilitates the advection and diabatic redistribution of tropopause-level PV, and the subsequent formation of the steep, single-step tropopause structure that characterizes a jet superposition. Given the importance of vertical motion during the formation of jet superpositions, this study adopts a quasigeostrophic (QG) diagnostic approach to quantify the production of vertical motion during three types of jet superposition events: polar dominant, eastern subtropical dominant, and western subtropical dominant. The diagnosis reveals that the geostrophic wind induced by polar cyclonic QGPV anomalies is predominantly responsible for QG vertical motion in the vicinity of jet superpositions. The QG vertical motion diagnosed from the along-isotherm component of the Q vector, which represents the vertical motion associated with synoptic-scale waves, is dominant within the near-jet environment. The QG vertical motion diagnosed from the across-isotherm component of the Q vector, which represents the vertical motion associated with frontal circulations in the vicinity of the jet, is subordinate within the near-jet environment, but is relatively more important during eastern subtropical dominant events compared to polar dominant and western subtropical dominant events. 

Abstract A polar–subtropical jet superposition represents a dynamical and thermodynamic environment conducive to the production of high-impact weather. Prior work indicates that the synoptic-scale environments that support the development of North American jet superpositions vary depending on the case under consideration. This variability motivates an analysis of the range of synoptic–dynamic mechanisms that operate within a double-jet environment to produce North American jet superpositions. This study identifies North American jet superposition events during November–March 1979–2010 and subsequently classifies those events into three characteristic event types. “Polar dominant” events are those during which only the polar jet is characterized by a substantial excursion from its climatological latitude band, “subtropical dominant” events are those during which only the subtropical jet is characterized by a substantial excursion from its climatological latitude band, and “hybrid” events are those characterized by a mutual excursion of both jets from their respective climatological latitude bands. The analysis indicates that North American jet superposition events occur most often during November and December, and subtropical dominant events are the most frequent event type for all months considered. Composite analyses constructed for each event type reveal the consistent role that descent plays in restructuring the tropopause beneath the jet-entrance region prior to jet superposition. The composite analyses further show that surface cyclogenesis and widespread precipitation lead the development of subtropical dominant events and contribute to jet superposition via their associated divergent circulations and diabatic heating, whereas surface cyclogenesis and widespread precipitation tend to peak at the time of superposition and well downstream of polar dominant events.