Influence of Modes of Climate Variability on Global Precipitation Extremes
Abstract
The probability of climate extremes is strongly affected by atmospheric circulation
This study quantifies the worldwide influence of three major modes of circulation
on station based indices of intense precipitation the El Nino-Southern Oscillation
the Pacific interdecadal variability as characterized by the North Pacific index (NPI)
and the North Atlantic Oscillation Northern Annular Mode The study examines which
stations show a statistically significant (5%) difference between the positive and
negative phases of a circulation regime Results show distinct regional patterns of
response to all these modes of climate variability however precipitation extremes
are most substantially affected by the El Nino-Southern Oscillation The effects of
the El Nino-Southern Oscillation are seen throughout the world, including in India
Africa South America, the Pacific Rim North America and weakly Europe The North Atlantic
Oscillation has a strong continent wide effect on Eurasia and affects a small but
not negligible percentage of stations across the Northern Hemispheric midlatitudes
This percentage Increases slightly if the Northern Annular Mode Index is used rather
than the NAO index In that case a region of increase in intense precipitation can
also be found in Southeast Asia The NPI influence on precipitation extremes is similar
to the response to El Nino and strongest in landmasses adjacent to the Pacific Consistently
indices of more rare precipitation events show a weaker response to circulation than
indices of moderate extremes, the results are quite similar but of opposite sign for
negative anomalies of the circulation indices
Type
Other articleSubject
sea-surface temperaturenorth-atlantic oscillation
equatorial wind
stresses
southern oscillation
pacific-ocean
el-nino
part ii
enso
trends
modulation
meteorology & atmospheric sciences
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/4282Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1175/2010JCLI3617.1Citation
Kenyon,Jesse;Hegerl,Gabriele C.. 2010. Influence of Modes of Climate Variability on
Global Precipitation Extremes. Journal of Climate 23(23): 6248-6262.
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