Nonlinear components in global climate teleconnections

Author(s):  
Jiří Mikšovský

<p>Among the sources of temporal variability in the climate system, an important role belongs to internal variability modes – phenomena with oscillatory behavior ranging from predominantly sub-annual (e.g. North Atlantic Oscillation) or inter-annual (e.g. Southern Oscillation) to decadal or multidecadal variations (e.g. Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation). These oscillations manifest themselves not only within their particular geographical areas of origin, but their effects are typically also transmitted through long-range teleconnections, affecting weather and climate patterns worldwide. Analysis of these relationships is often done assuming their linearity – but rarely is such assumption explicitly verified.</p><p>In this presentation, presence and magnitude of nonlinear components in long-range teleconnections associated with selected climate variability modes are studied through various time series analysis methods. Several nonlinearity-quantifying statistics, ranging from simple measures of asymmetry in the regression coefficients to outcomes of more formal surrogate data-based tests, are employed to investigate the teleconnection-related responses of local temperatures across the globe. It is shown that substantial variations exist in degree of manifested nonlinearity, subject to both the target location and type of the variability mode(s) considered. Potential of individual nonlinearity-sensitive techniques for more realistic capture of the teleconnection-related response patterns is also discussed, with an ultimate goal of construction of a more accurate model of variability transfer in the climate system.</p>

Science ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 339 (6115) ◽  
pp. 67-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim M. Cobb ◽  
Niko Westphal ◽  
Hussein R. Sayani ◽  
Jordan T. Watson ◽  
Emanuele Di Lorenzo ◽  
...  

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) drives large changes in global climate patterns from year to year, yet its sensitivity to continued anthropogenic greenhouse forcing is uncertain. We analyzed fossil coral reconstructions of ENSO spanning the past 7000 years from the Northern Line Islands, located in the center of action for ENSO. The corals document highly variable ENSO activity, with no evidence for a systematic trend in ENSO variance, which is contrary to some models that exhibit a response to insolation forcing over this same period. Twentieth-century ENSO variance is significantly higher than average fossil coral ENSO variance but is not unprecedented. Our results suggest that forced changes in ENSO, whether natural or anthropogenic, may be difficult to detect against a background of large internal variability.


Author(s):  
Tim Kittel ◽  
Catrin Ciemer ◽  
Nastaran Lotfi ◽  
Thomas Peron ◽  
Francisco Rodrigues ◽  
...  

AbstractEpisodically occurring internal (climatic) and external (non-climatic) disruptions of normal climate variability are known to both affect spatio-temporal patterns of global surface air temperatures (SAT) at time-scales between multiple weeks and several years. The magnitude and spatial manifestation of the corresponding effects depend strongly on the specific type of perturbation and may range from weak spatially coherent yet regionally confined trends to a global reorganization of co-variability due to the excitation or inhibition of certain large-scale teleconnectivity patterns. Here, we employ functional climate network analysis to distinguish qualitatively the global climate responses to different phases of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) from those to the three largest volcanic eruptions since the mid-20th century as the two most prominent types of recurrent climate disruptions. Our results confirm that strong ENSO episodes can cause a temporary breakdown of the normal hierarchical organization of the global SAT field, which is characterized by the simultaneous emergence of consistent regional temperature trends and strong teleconnections. By contrast, the most recent strong volcanic eruptions exhibited primarily regional effects rather than triggering additional long-range teleconnections that would not have been present otherwise. By relying on several complementary network characteristics, our results contribute to a better understanding of climate network properties by differentiating between climate variability reorganization mechanisms associated with internal variability versus such triggered by non-climatic abrupt and localized perturbations.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 1610-1625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff R. Knight

Abstract Instrumental sea surface temperature records in the North Atlantic Ocean are characterized by large multidecadal variability known as the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO). The lack of strong oscillatory forcing of the climate system at multidecadal time scales and the results of long unforced climate simulations have led to the widespread, although not ubiquitous, view that the AMO is an internal mode of climate variability. Here, a more objective examination of this hypothesis is performed using simulations with natural and anthropogenic forcings from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 (CMIP3) database. Ensemble means derived from these data allow an estimate of the response of models to forcings, as averaging leads to cancellation of the internal variability between ensemble members. In general, the means of individual model ensembles appear to be inconsistent with observed temperatures, although small ensemble sizes result in uncertainty in this conclusion. Combining the ensembles from different models creates a multimodel ensemble of sufficient size to allow for a good estimate of the forced response. This shows that the variability in observed North Atlantic temperatures possess a clearly distinct signature to the climate response expected from forcings. The reliability of this finding is confirmed by sampling those models with low decadal internal variability and by comparing simulated and observed trends. In contrast to the inconsistency with the ensemble mean, the observations are consistent with the spread of responses in the ensemble members, suggesting they can be accounted for by the combined effects of forcings and internal variability. In the most recent period, the results suggest that the North Atlantic is warming faster than expected, and that the AMO entered a positive phase in the 1990s. The differences found between observed and ensemble mean temperatures could arise through errors in the observational data, errors in the models’ response to forcings or in the forcings themselves, or as a result of genuine internal variability. Each of these possibilities is discussed, and it is concluded that internal variability within the natural climate system is the most likely origin of the differences. Finally, the estimate of internal variability obtained using the model-derived ensemble mean is proposed as a new way of defining the AMO, which has important advantages over previous definitions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 12331-12371 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Casanueva ◽  
C. Rodríguez-Puebla ◽  
M. D. Frías ◽  
N. González-Reviriego

Abstract. A growing interest in extreme precipitation has spread through the scientific community due to the effects of global climate change on the hydrological cycle and their threat on natural systems more than averaged climatic values. Understanding the variability of hydrological indices and their association to atmospheric processes could help to project the frequency and severity of extremes. This paper evaluates the trend of three precipitation extremes: the number of consecutive dry/wet days (CDD/CWD) and the quotient of the precipitation in days where daily precipitation exceeds the 95th percentile of the reference period and the total amount of precipitation (or contribution of very wet days, R95pTOT). The aim of this study is twofold. First, extreme indicators are compared against accumulated precipitation (RR) over Europe in terms of trends using non-parametric approaches. Second, we analyse the geographic opposite trends found over different parts of Europe by considering their relationships with large-scale processes, using different teleconnection patterns. The study is accomplished for the four seasons using the gridded E-OBS dataset developed within the EU ENSEMBLES project. Different patterns of variability were found for CWD and CDD in winter and summer, with north-south and east–west configurations, respectively. We consider physical factors to understand the extremes variability by linking large-scale processes and hydrological extremes. Opposite association with the North Atlantic Oscillation in winter and summer, and the relationships with the Scandinavian, East Atlantic patterns and El Niño/Southern Oscillation events in spring and autumn gave insight into the trend differences. Significant relationships were found between the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and very extreme precipitation (R95pTOT) during the whole year. The largest extreme anomalies were analysed by composite maps using atmospheric variables and sea surface temperature. The association of extreme precipitation indices and large-scale variables found in this work could pave the way of new possibilities for the projection of extremes in downscaling techniques.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 2339-2381 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Mikšovský ◽  
E. Holtanová ◽  
P. Pišoft

Abstract. Monthly near-surface temperature anomalies from several gridded datasets (GISTEMP, Berkeley Earth, MLOST, HadCRUT4, 20th Century Reanalysis) were investigated and compared with regard to the presence of components attributable to external climate forcings (anthropogenic, solar and volcanic) and to major internal climate variability modes (El Niño/Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation and variability characterized by the Trans-Polar Index). Multiple linear regression was used to separate components related to individual explanatory variables in local monthly temperatures as well as in their global means, over the 1901–2010 period. Strong correlations of temperature and anthropogenic forcing were confirmed for most of the globe, whereas only weaker and mostly statistically insignificant connections to solar activity were indicated. Imprints of volcanic forcing were found to be largely insignificant in the local temperatures, in contrast to the clear volcanic signature in their global averages. An attention was also paid to the manifestations of short-term time shifts in the responses to the forcings, and to differences in the spatial fingerprints detected from individual temperature datasets: it is shown that although the resemblance of the response patterns is usually strong, some regional contrasts appear. Noteworthy differences from the other datasets were found especially for the 20th Century Reanalysis, particularly for the components attributable to anthropogenic and volcanic forcing over land, but also in some of the teleconnection patterns related to the internal variability modes.


Author(s):  
Richard Passarelli ◽  
David Michel ◽  
William Durch

The Earth’s climate system is a global public good. Maintaining it is a collective action problem. This chapter looks at a quarter-century of efforts to understand and respond to the challenges posed by global climate change and why the collective political response, until very recently, has seemed to lag so far behind our scientific knowledge of the problem. The chapter tracks the efforts of the main global, intergovernmental process for negotiating both useful and politically acceptable responses to climate change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, but also highlights efforts by scientific and environmental groups and, more recently, networks of sub-national governments—especially cities—and of businesses to redefine interests so as to meet the dangers of climate system disruption.


2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 626-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Anthony Koslow ◽  
Pete Davison ◽  
Erica Ferrer ◽  
S Patricia A Jiménez Rosenberg ◽  
Gerardo Aceves-Medina ◽  
...  

Abstract Declining oxygen concentrations in the deep ocean, particularly in areas with pronounced oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), are a growing global concern related to global climate change. Its potential impacts on marine life remain poorly understood. A previous study suggested that the abundance of a diverse suite of mesopelagic fishes off southern California was closely linked to trends in midwater oxygen concentration. This study expands the spatial and temporal scale of that analysis to examine how mesopelagic fishes are responding to declining oxygen levels in the California Current (CC) off central, southern, and Baja California. Several warm-water mesopelagic species, apparently adapted to the shallower, more intense OMZ off Baja California, are shown to be increasing despite declining midwater oxygen concentrations and becoming increasingly dominant, initially off Baja California and subsequently in the CC region to the north. Their increased abundance is associated with warming near-surface ocean temperature, the warm phase of the Pacific Decadal oscillation and Multivariate El Niño-Southern Oscillation Index, and the increased flux of Pacific Equatorial Water into the southern CC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhei Takaya ◽  
Yu Kosaka ◽  
Masahiro Watanabe ◽  
Shuhei Maeda

AbstractThe interannual variability of the Asian summer monsoon has significant impacts on Asian society. Advances in climate modelling have enabled us to make useful predictions of the seasonal Asian summer monsoon up to approximately half a year ahead, but long-range predictions remain challenging. Here, using a 52-member large ensemble hindcast experiment spanning 1980–2016, we show that a state-of-the-art climate model can predict the Asian summer monsoon and associated summer tropical cyclone activity more than one year ahead. The key to this long-range prediction is successfully simulating El Niño-Southern Oscillation evolution and realistically representing the subsequent atmosphere–ocean response in the Indian Ocean–western North Pacific in the second boreal summer of the prediction. A large ensemble size is also important for achieving a useful prediction skill, with a margin for further improvement by an even larger ensemble.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tainã M. L. Pinho ◽  
Cristiano M. Chiessi ◽  
Rodrigo C. Portilho-Ramos ◽  
Marília C. Campos ◽  
Stefano Crivellari ◽  
...  

AbstractSubtropical ocean gyres play a key role in modulating the global climate system redistributing energy between low and high latitudes. A poleward displacement of the subtropical gyres has been observed over the last decades, but the lack of long-term monitoring data hinders an in-depth understanding of their dynamics. Paleoceanographic records offer the opportunity to identify meridional changes in the subtropical gyres and investigate their consequences to the climate system. Here we use the abundance of planktonic foraminiferal species Globorotalia truncatulinodes from a sediment core collected at the northernmost boundary of the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre (SASG) together with a previously published record of the same species from the southernmost boundary of the SASG to reconstruct meridional fluctuations of the SASG over last ca. 70 kyr. Our findings indicate southward displacements of the SASG during Heinrich Stadials (HS) 6-4 and HS1, and a contraction of the SASG during HS3 and HS2. During HS6-4 and HS1, the SASG southward displacements likely boosted the transfer of heat to the Southern Ocean, ultimately strengthening deep-water upwelling and CO2 release to the atmosphere. We hypothesize that the ongoing SASG poleward displacement may further increase oceanic CO2 release.


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