Robust features of Atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts
Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability (AMV), also known as the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), is characterized by a sharp rise and fall of the North Atlantic basin-wide sea surface temperatures (SST) on multi-decadal time scales.Widespread consequences of these rapid temperature swings were...
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ftcolumbiauniv:oai:academiccommons.columbia.edu:10.7916/D81C26GN 2023-05-15T17:34:08+02:00 Robust features of Atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts Ting, Mingfang Kushnir, Yochanan Seager, Richard Li, Cuihua 2011 https://doi.org/10.7916/D81C26GN English eng https://doi.org/10.7916/D81C26GN Climatic changes Articles 2011 ftcolumbiauniv https://doi.org/10.7916/D81C26GN 2019-04-04T08:07:15Z Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability (AMV), also known as the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), is characterized by a sharp rise and fall of the North Atlantic basin-wide sea surface temperatures (SST) on multi-decadal time scales.Widespread consequences of these rapid temperature swings were noted in many previous studies. Among these are the drying of Sahel in the 1960-70s and change in the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes on multi-decadal time scales. Given the short instrumental data records (about a century long) the central question is whether these climate fluctuations are robustly linked with the AMV and to what extent are these connections subject to changes in a changing climate. Here we address this issue by using the CMIP3 simulations for the 20th, 21st, and pre-industrial eras with 23 IPCC models. While models tend to produce AMV of shorter time scales and less periodic than suggested by the observations, the spatial structures of the SST anomaly patterns, and their association with worldwide precipitation, are surprisingly similar between models (with differing external forcing) and observations. Our results confirm the strong link between AMV and Sahel rainfall and suggest a clear physical mechanism for the linkage in terms of meridional shifts of the Atlantic ITCZ. The results also help clarify influences that may not be robust, such as the impacts over North America, India, and Australia. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Columbia University: Academic Commons |
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Columbia University: Academic Commons |
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ftcolumbiauniv |
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English |
topic |
Climatic changes |
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Climatic changes Ting, Mingfang Kushnir, Yochanan Seager, Richard Li, Cuihua Robust features of Atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts |
topic_facet |
Climatic changes |
description |
Atlantic Multi-decadal Variability (AMV), also known as the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), is characterized by a sharp rise and fall of the North Atlantic basin-wide sea surface temperatures (SST) on multi-decadal time scales.Widespread consequences of these rapid temperature swings were noted in many previous studies. Among these are the drying of Sahel in the 1960-70s and change in the frequency and intensity of Atlantic hurricanes on multi-decadal time scales. Given the short instrumental data records (about a century long) the central question is whether these climate fluctuations are robustly linked with the AMV and to what extent are these connections subject to changes in a changing climate. Here we address this issue by using the CMIP3 simulations for the 20th, 21st, and pre-industrial eras with 23 IPCC models. While models tend to produce AMV of shorter time scales and less periodic than suggested by the observations, the spatial structures of the SST anomaly patterns, and their association with worldwide precipitation, are surprisingly similar between models (with differing external forcing) and observations. Our results confirm the strong link between AMV and Sahel rainfall and suggest a clear physical mechanism for the linkage in terms of meridional shifts of the Atlantic ITCZ. The results also help clarify influences that may not be robust, such as the impacts over North America, India, and Australia. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ting, Mingfang Kushnir, Yochanan Seager, Richard Li, Cuihua |
author_facet |
Ting, Mingfang Kushnir, Yochanan Seager, Richard Li, Cuihua |
author_sort |
Ting, Mingfang |
title |
Robust features of Atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts |
title_short |
Robust features of Atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts |
title_full |
Robust features of Atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts |
title_fullStr |
Robust features of Atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts |
title_full_unstemmed |
Robust features of Atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts |
title_sort |
robust features of atlantic multi-decadal variability and its climate impacts |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D81C26GN |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D81C26GN |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7916/D81C26GN |
_version_ |
1766132869115150336 |