Life Cycles of Blocking Flows Associated with Synoptic-Scale Eddies: Observed Results and Numerical Experiments

An observational study is presented to confirm that the life cycle of blocking associated with synoptic-scale eddies is a transfer process between dispersion and nondispersion. In addition, numerical experiments are conducted. It is found that the synoptic-scale eddies seem to play a dominant role in the amplification of blocking, while the topography effect appears to play a phase-locking role. At the same time,the synoptic eddies tend to split into two branches during the onset of blocking. This supports the observational results obtained.