Summer snow extent heralding of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation

[1] Winter climate over the North Atlantic and European sector is modulated by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). We find that the summer extent of snow cover over northern North America and northern Eurasia is linked significantly (p < 0.01) to the upcoming winter NAO state. Summers with high...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Saunders, MA, Qian, BD, Lloyd-Hughes, B
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION 2003
Subjects:
Climate variability
Predictability
Temperatures
Reanalysis
Anomalies
Update
North Atlantic
North Atlantic oscillation
Online Access:https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/8878/1/2002GL016832.pdf
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/8878/
Description
Summary:[1] Winter climate over the North Atlantic and European sector is modulated by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). We find that the summer extent of snow cover over northern North America and northern Eurasia is linked significantly (p < 0.01) to the upcoming winter NAO state. Summers with high/low snow extent precede winters of low/high NAO index phase. We suggest the linkage arises from the summer snow-associated formation of anomalous longitudinal differences in surface air temperature with the subpolar North Atlantic. Our findings indicate the seasonal predictability of North Atlantic winter climate may be higher and extend to longer leads than thought previously.

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