Precipitation and Northern Hemisphere Regimes
Raible CC, Luksch U, Fraedrich K
Atmos. Res. Lett.
5: 43-5 FEB 2004


Abstract:
Rainfall anomalies in a longterm integration of general circulation model highlight the non-stationarity of the ocean-atmosphere coupling in the North Atlantic which becomes manifest in two regimes. Anti-correlations between the precipitation in the tropical and subtropical western Atlantic illustrate the changes of the Hadley cell with El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The precipitation anomaly pattern in the northeastern Atlantic resembles variations of the North Atlantic storm track and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In the hemispheric regime, where 40 % of the NAO variability can be explained by ENSO, both precipitation pattern are connected, whereas in the regional regime the ENSO-link with the North Atlantic storm track and the subtropical 500 hPa geopotential height disappears.

KeyWords Plus:
NAO LOW-FREQUENCY VARIABILITY, INTERDECADAL VARIABILITY, NON-STATIONARITY OF THE OCEAN-ATMOSPHERE COUPLING, CLIMATE VARIABILITY

Addresses:
Raible C.C., Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstr. 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
Luksch U, Fraedrich K, Univ Hamburg, Inst Meteorol, Bundesstr 60, Hamburg, Germany

Reprints (after having been accepted):
Raible CC, Climate and Environmental Physics, Physics Institute, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland, raible@climate.unibe.ch