Recent advances in polar low research: Current knowledge, challenges and future perspectives
This paper contains a literature review on polar lows (PLs), which are high-latitude intense maritime mesoscale weather systems that develop over open water near the sea ice margin or near snow-covered continents during cold air outbreaks. PLs pose a threat to coastal and island communities, transportation and offshore drilling platforms. Although our knowledge about PLs has significantly increased during the last decades, the are still many unanswered questions. Among the most pressing issues in PL research are the need to determine the objective criteria that define PLs and to devise an international intercomparison project of PL detection and tracking.
The paper identifies four future challenges and perspectives regarding polar lows. These include:
- Detecting and tracking PLs;
- Observing and modelling PLs;
- Understanding the development mechanisms of PLs; and
- Analysing the impact of climate change on the climatology of PLs.
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