On the quality of climate proxies derived from newspaper reports ? a case study

• Main Authors: Gallego, D., García-Herrera, R., Prieto, R., Peña-Ortiz, C.
• Other Authors: Dpto. de Sistemas Físicos, Químicos y Naturales, Departamento Fisica de la Tierra, Astronomía y Astrofísica Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid = Complutense University of Madrid Madrid (UCM), Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales Mendoza (CONICET-IANIGLA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas Buenos Aires (CONICET)-Universidad Nacional de Cuyo Mendoza (UNCUYO)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Pacific; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00298195; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00298195/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00298195/file/cpd-3-977-2007.pdf

International audience In this paper, the quality of a reconstruction of daily snow frequency in the central Andes is evaluated by studying the atmospheric patterns related to anomalies in the reconstructed series. The origin of precipitation anomalies in this part of the world is relatively well known and is has been related to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation cycle through the Pacific South American pattern, which implies changes in the subtropical jet across the Pacific, the blocking activity in the Southeastern Pacific and the ice formation around the Antarctic Peninsula. We found that the reconstructed series of snow frequency reproduces every expected anomaly pattern related to precipitation in the central Andes during the period 1958?1996. The methodology developed can help to validate reconstructed series in absence of instrumental data to perform a direct calibration. In addition, it provides a physical link between the variability of a climate proxy and the underlying atmospheric dynamics.