Marta Wenta

• Ph.D.
• Meteorologist at Axpo AG

Blocked weather regimes are an important phenomenon in the Euro-Atlantic region and are frequently linked to extreme weather events. Despite their importance for surface weather, the correct prediction of blocking events remains challenging. Previous studies indicated a link between the misrepresentation of blocking events in numerical weather pred...

The ever-increasing complexity and data volumes of numerical weather prediction demand innovations in the analysis and synthesis of operational forecast data. Here we show how dynamical thinking can offer directly applicable forecast information, taking as a case study the extreme northern Italy flooding of May 2023. We compare this event with long...

Blocked weather regimes are an important phenomenon in the Euro-Atlantic region and are frequently linked to extreme weather events. Despite their importance for surface weather, the correct prediction of blocking events remains challenging. Previous studies indicated a link between the misrepresentation of blocking events in numerical weather pred...

Extratropical cyclones convert available potential energy (APE) to kinetic energy. However, our current understanding of APE conversion on synoptic scales is limited, as the well-established Lorenz APE framework is only applicable in a global, volume-integrated sense. Here, we employ a recently developed local APE framework to investigate APE and i...

The ever-increasing complexity and data volumes of numerical weather prediction demands innovations in the analysis and synthesis of operational forecast data. Here we show how dynamical thinking can offer directly applicable forecast information, taking as a case study the extreme north Italian flooding of May 2023. We compare this event with hist...

The development of atmospheric blocks over the North Atlantic–European region can lead to extreme weather events like heat waves or cold air outbreaks. Despite their potential severe impact on surface weather, the correct prediction of blocking lifecycles remains a key challenge in current numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. Increasing evide...

The development of atmospheric blocks over the North Atlantic European region can lead to extreme weather events like heatwaves or cold air outbreaks. Despite their potential severe impact on surface weather, the correct prediction of blocking lifecycles remains a key challenge in current numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. Increasing eviden...

The floe size distribution (FSD) is an important characteristics of sea ice, influencing several physical processes that take place in the oceanic and atmospheric boundary layers under/over sea ice, as well as within sea ice itself. Through complex feedback loops involving those processes, FSD might modify the short-term and seasonal evolution of t...

The floe size distribution (FSD) is an important characteristics of sea ice, influencing several physical processes that take place in the oceanic and atmospheric boundary layers under/over sea ice, as well as within sea ice itself. Through complex feedback loops involving those processes, FSD might modify the short-term and seasonal evolution of t...

The Hailuoto Atmospheric Observations over Sea ice (HAOS) campaign took place at the westernmost point of Hailuoto island (Finland) between 27 February and 2 March 2020. The aim of the campaign was to obtain atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) observations over seasonal sea ice in the Bay of Bothnia. Throughout 4 d, both fixed-wing and quad-propeller...

Off the coast of Victoria Land, Antarctica an area of open water-the Terra Nova Bay Polynya (TNBP)-persists throughout the austral winter. The development of this coastal polynya is driven by extreme katabatic winds blowing down the slopes of Transantarctic Mountains. The surface-atmosphere coupling and ABL transformation during the katabatic wind...

The Hailuoto Atmospheric Observations over Sea ice (HAOS) campaign took place at the westernmost point of Hailuoto island (Finland) between 27 February and 2 March 2020. The aim of the campaign was to obtain atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) observations over seasonal sea ice in the Bay of Bothnia. Throughout 4 days both fixed-wing and quad-propelle...

Sea ice fragmentation results in the transformation of the surface from relatively homogeneous to highly heterogeneous. Atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) rapidly responds to those changes through a range of processes which are poorly understood and not parametrized in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. The aim of this work is to increase our...

The response of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) to subgrid-scale variations of sea ice properties and fracturing is poorly understood and not taken into account in mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model parametrizations. In this paper we analyze three-dimensional air circulation within the ABL over fragmented sea ice. A series of i...

The response of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) to subgrid-scale variations of sea ice properties and fracturing is poorly understood and not taken into account in mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models parametrizations. A series of idealized, high-resolution simulations with Weather Research and Forecasting Model is performed for...

In mesoscale numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, sea ice cover is typically represented by grid-cell-average ice concentration and thickness. The relevant variables – surface heat and moisture fluxes, roughness, albedo and so on – are calculated as a weighted average of the respective values over sea ice and open water. With typical model re...

We report the results of recent field measurements of seawater thermohaline structure and transparency carried out in early summer 2014 in Puck Bay. Near-bottom, less saline waters occurred almost in the entire study area. Their occurrence in the shallow part of Puck Bay was accompanied by an increase in the seawater transparency. The most likely e...