Abstracts
SEARCH Open Science Meeting
October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA
Arctic Modes of Temperature Variability During the Past 500 Years: Relating Summer to Winter
Peter J. Huybers1, Konrad A. Hughen2, PARCS High-Resolution Working Group3
1Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, room 54-1724, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA, Phone 617-233-3295, phuybers@mit.edu
2Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, 360 Woods Hole Rd, Woods Hole, MA, 02543, USA, Phone 508-289-3353, Fax 508-457-2193, khughen@whoi.edu
3www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/parcs, USA
A circum-Arctic array of paleoclimate records provides for the identification and reconstruction of warm-season (May through October) Arctic modes of variability over the last 500 years. The paleoclimate array is composed of tree rings, varved lake sediments, and ice layers; most of which are annually resolved. The array's leading Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) are significantly correlated with the leading EOFs of warm-season temperature variability from the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis. These EOFs can be identified with 1) changes in mean temperature, 2) the Arctic Oscillation, and 3) a Urals Trough wave number three circulation pattern.
A major question is the relationship of these warm-season modes of variability with their cold-season counter-parts. This relationship is explored in the context of 1) pressure and temperature variability in the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis over the last 50 years, and 2) temperature variability in the Climate Research Unit's gridded compilation over the last 140 years. Insights are used to interpret the warm-season paleoclimate reconstructions in the context of the full-annual variability of Arctic temperatures. This aids in putting recent positive trends in the Arctic Oscillation and mean Arctic temperature in perspective with the natural background variability of the Arctic system.
Abstract Categories: Changes in the Atmosphere
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