Different response of North Pacific storm tracks in the upper and lower troposphere to jet strength

The midwinter suppression of North Pacific storm tracks (NPSTs) reflects that the linear relationship between the NPST and baroclinicity breaks in winter. Based on the reanalysis data during the cold seasons of 1979–2019 and a tracking algorithm, this study analyzes the eddy growth process and shows that an enhanced upper-tropospheric jet favors the generation of upper-level eddies on the northeast side of the Pacific jet, but increasingly suppresses the generation of those in the Northwest Pacific. The upper-level eddies generated upstream of the jet core are unable to grow sufficiently throughout the whole cold season, and only those generated downstream of the jet core can grow normally and constitute the main body of the upper-level NPST. By contrast, the main lower-level eddy genesis area and growth area coincide with the baroclinic zone, with the genesis number and local growth rate increasing with the baroclinicity.