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Title: Decadal Covariability of the Northern Wintertime Land Surface Temperature and Atmospheric Circulation

Journal Article · · Journal of Climate
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Environment Canada, Toronto, ON (Canada). Climate Research Division, Climate Data Analysis Section
  2. Environment Canada, Victoria, BC (Canada). Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Climate Research Division
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The decadal covariability of northern wintertime land surface temperature and 500-hPa geopotential anomalies is examined using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Twentieth-Century Reanalyses over the twentieth century and a 996-yr preindustrial climate simulation from the Canadian Earth System Model. Based on the reanalysis data, the covariability is dominated by two leading maximum covariance analysis (MCA) modes. MCA1 is characterized by temperature anomalies over most of Canada, the eastern United States, Mexico, and Eurasian mid- to high latitudes, accompanied by anomalies of opposite sign elsewhere over northern landmasses. MCA2 features temperature anomalies over most of North America, Eurasia, and Greenland with opposite anomalies elsewhere. In the upper troposphere the synoptic vorticity fluxes reinforce the anomalous circulation, while in the lower troposphere advection by the anomalous mean flow offsets the eddy forcing and maintains the decadal temperature perturbation. The MCA1-associated variability has a broad spectrum over decadal–interdecadal time scales, while the MCA2-related variability has a significant power peak around 20 yr. The change of temperature and geopotential trends around 1990 tends to be a decadal-scale shift in winter and has significant features of the leading mode of the decadal covariability. The climate model has broadly similar decadal covariability, including the leading MCA patterns as well as the temporal evolution of the patterns. The decadal temperature and geopotential anomalies primarily covary with the North Atlantic Oscillation but also with the variability of the North Pacific index, while the Southern Oscillation index variability tends to be the least important predictor for the northern decadal temperature and geopotential anomalies.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI ID:
1565237
Journal Information:
Journal of Climate, Vol. 27, Issue 2; ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 6 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Climatic dipoles drive two principal modes of North American boreal bird irruption journal May 2015
Coherent changes of wintertime surface air temperatures over North Asia and North America journal March 2018
Relationship between North American winter temperature and large-scale atmospheric circulation anomalies and its decadal variation journal July 2016

Figures / Tables (15)

FIG. 1(p. 4)figure FIG. 1
FIG. 2(p. 5)figure FIG. 2
FIG. 3(p. 6)figure FIG. 3
TABLE 1(p. 6)table TABLE 1
FIG. 4(p. 7)figure FIG. 4
FIG. 5(p. 8)figure FIG. 5
TABLE 2(p. 8)table TABLE 2
FIG. 6(p. 9)figure FIG. 6
FIG. 7(p. 11)figure FIG. 7
FIG. 8(p. 12)figure FIG. 8
TABLE 3(p. 12)table TABLE 3
FIG. 9(p. 13)figure FIG. 9
FIG. 10(p. 14)figure FIG. 10
FIG. 11(p. 15)figure FIG. 11
FIG. 12(p. 16)figure FIG. 12

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Atmospheric circulation
Climate change
Climate variability
Surface temperature
Model evaluation/performance