The Atmospheric Hydrologic Cycle over the Arctic Basin from Reanalyses. Part II:

• Main Authors: Interannual Variability, Aric N. Rogers, David H. Bromwich, Elizabeth N. Sinclair, Richard I. Cullather
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2000
• Subjects: Arctic; Pacific; Arctic Basin; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.669.8770; http://polarmet.osu.edu/PMG_publications/rogers_bromwich_jc_2001.pdf

Previously, the atmospheric moisture budgets over the Arctic Basin as represented by reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP–NCAR) reanalysis and from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis were evaluated for the overlap period of 1979–93 and found to be very similar to each other and to the available observations. Here emphasis is on the 50 yr of the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis (January 1949–May 1999) to depict the interannual variability of the atmospheric moisture fluxes across 708N and their convergence farther north. Precipitation minus evaporation (P 2 E) calculated from moisture flux convergence is compared with three large-scale circulation patterns that strongly affect the interannual variability of P 2 E over the Arctic and its environs: the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO), the Arctic oscillation (AO), and the North Pacific oscillation (NPO). The impact of the NAO and the closely related AO on Arctic Basin P 2 E is found to be marked, with a P 2 E:NAO winter correlation of 0.49 (0.56 for the AO). On an annual basis, Arctic Basin P 2 E is much more closely correlated with the NAO (0.69) than with the AO (0.49), consistent with the Atlantic Ocean domination of the northward poleward moisture flux across 708N. Regional analysis confirms that the NAO impact on P 2 E is concentrated around the periphery of the North Atlantic Ocean and extends north into the