Mediterranean climate change and Indian Ocean warming

General circulation model (GCM) responses to 20th century changes in sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and greenhouse gases are diagnosed, with emphasis on their relationship to observed regional climate change over the Mediterranean region. A major question is whether the Mediterranean region’s drying trend since 1950 can be understood as a consequence of the warming trend in tropical SSTs. We focus on the impact of Indian Ocean warming, which is itself the likely result of increasing greenhouse gases. It is discovered that a strong projection onto the positive polarity of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index characterizes the atmospheric response structure to the 1950-1999 warming of Indian Ocean SSTs. This influence appears to be robust in so far as it is reproduced in ensembles of experiments using three different GCMs. Both the equilibrium and transient responses to Indian Ocean warming are examined. Under each scenario, the latitude of prevailing midlatitude westerlies shifts poleward during the November-April period. The consequence is a drying of the Mediterranean region, whereas northern Europe and Scandinavia receive increased precipitation in concert with the poleward shift of storminess. The IPCC (TAR) 20th century coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations forced by observed greenhouse gas changes also yield a post-1950 drying trend over the Mediterranean. We argue that this feature of human-induced regional climate change is the outcome of a dynamical feedback, one involving Indian Ocean warming and a requisite adjustment of atmospheric circulation systems to such ocean warming

Causes and Predictability of the 2012 Great Plains Drought

Central Great Plains precipitation deficits during May-August 2012 were the most severe since at least 1895, eclipsing the Dust Bowl summers of 1934 and 1936. Drought developed suddenly in May, following near-normal precipitation during winter and early spring. Its proximate causes were a reduction in atmospheric moisture transport into the Great Plains from the Gulf of Mexico. Processes that generally provide air mass lift and condensation were mostly absent, including a lack of frontal cyclones in late spring followed by suppressed deep convection in summer owing to large-scale subsidence and atmospheric stabilization. Seasonal forecasts did not predict the summer 2012 central Great Plains drought development, which therefore arrived without early warning. Climate simulations and empirical analysis suggest that ocean surface temperatures together with changes in greenhouse gases did not induce a substantial reduction in summertime precipitation over the central Great Plains during 2012. Yet, diagnosis of the retrospective climate simulations also reveals a regime shift toward warmer and drier summertime Great Plains conditions during the recent decade, most probably due to natural decadal variability. As a consequence, the probability for severe summer Great Plains drought may have increased in the last decade compared to the 1980s and 1990s, and the so-called tail-risk for severe drought may have been heightened in summer 2012. Such an extreme drought event was nonetheless still found to be a rare occurrence within the spread of 2012 climate model simulations. Implications of this study's findings for U.S. seasonal drought forecasting are discussed

Climatology and interannual variability of boreal spring wet season precipitation in the eastern Horn of Africa and implications for its recent decline

The 1981-2014 climatology and variability of the March-May eastern Horn of Africa boreal spring wet season are examined using precipitation, upper- and lower-level winds, low-level specific humidity, and convective available potential energy (CAPE), with the aim of better understanding the establishment of the wet season and the cause of the recent observed decline. At 850 mb, the development of the wet season is characterized by increasing specific humidity and winds that veer from northeasterly in February to southerly in June and advect moisture into the region, in agreement with an earlier study. Equally important, however, is a substantial weakening of the 200-mb climatological easterly winds in March. Likewise, the shutdown of the wet season coincides with the return of strong easterly winds in June. Similar changes are seen in the daily evolution of specific humidity and 200-mb wind when composited relative to the interannual wet season onset and end, with the easterlies decreasing (increasing) several days prior to the start (end) of the wet season. The 1981-2014 decrease in March-May precipitation has also coincided with an increase in 200-mb easterly winds, with no attendant change in specific humidity, leading to the conclusion that, while high values of specific humidity are an important ingredient of the wet season, the recent observed precipitation decline has resulted mostly from a strengthening of the 200-mb easterlies. This change in the easterly winds appears to be related to an increase in convection over the Indonesian region and in the associated outflow from that enhanced heat source

Diagnosis of Anomalous Winter Temperatures over the Eastern United States during the 2002/03 El Niño

The eastern United States experienced an unusually cold winter season during the 2002/03 El Niño event. The U.S. seasonal forecasts did not suggest an enhanced likelihood for below-normal temperatures over the eastern United States in that season. A postmortem analysis examining the observed temperatures and the associated forecast is motivated by two fundamental questions: what are these temperature anomalies attributable to, and to what extent were these temperature anomalies predictable? The results suggest that the extreme seasonal temperatures experienced in the eastern United States during December–February (DJF) 2002/03 can be attributed to a combination of several constructively interfering factors that include El Niño conditions in the tropical Pacific, a persistent positive Pacific–North American (PNA) mode, a persistent negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) mode, and persistent snow cover over the northeastern United States. According to the simulations and predictions from several dynamical atmospheric models, which were not rigorously included in the U.S. forecast, much of the observed temperature pattern was potentially predictable

Improving Seasonal Prediction Practices Through Attribution of Climate Variability

The Seasonal Diagnostics Consortium of the Applied Research Centers is engaging in a real-time activity to detect and understand the role of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in observed climate anomalies. The activity is aimed to improve practices in seasonal climate forecasting by fully harvesting the accumulated research evidence of the climate's sensitivity to ocean forcing. The approach, in the first phase of the activity, involves performing ensembles of atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) at several institutions, using the most recently observed global SST anomalies as prescribed forcings. The runs are routinely updated each month as the latest SST observations become available, adding to the archive of historical simulations spanning the last half-century. The SST-forced signal in the seasonal mean climate is detected through the agreement among ensemble mean anomalies drawn from the simulations of the various AGCMs. The consortium activity also compares the dynamically forced signals with those estimated empirically, based on the observational archive. A comparison of the coordinated simulations with the observed climate anomalies is then made for two principal reasons: 1) to offer an attribution for the ocean's role in the origin of the observed seasonal climate anomalies, and 2) to determine the causes for success or failure of operational seasonal climate predictions, whose tools may be either mainly dynamically or empirically derived. It is expected that routine climate diagnostics and attribution efforts for climate anomalies will help further develop the knowledge base for improving the practice of seasonal climate predictions, and advance understanding of global climate on seasonal to decadal time scales

Changes in the Spread of the Variability of the Seasonal Mean Atmospheric States Associated with ENSO

For a fixed sea surface temperature (SST) forcing, the variability of the observed seasonal mean atmospheric states in the extratropical latitudes can be characterized in terms of probability distribution functions (PDFs). Predictability of the seasonal mean anomalies related to interannual variations in the SSTs, therefore, entails understanding the influence of SST forcing on various moments of the probability distribution that characterize the variability of the seasonal means. Such an understanding for changes in the first moment of the PDF for the seasonal means with SSTs is well documented. In this paper the analysis is extended to include also the impact of SST forcing on the second moment of the PDFs. The analysis is primarily based on ensemble atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) simulations forced with observed SSTs for the period 1950–94. To establish the robustness of the results and to ensure that they are not unduly affected by biases in a particular AGCM, the analysis is based on simulations from four different AGCMs. The analysis of AGCM simulations indicates that over the Pacific–North American region, the impact of interannual variations in SSTs on the spread of the seasonal mean atmospheric states (i.e., the second moment of the PDFs) may be small. This is in contrast to their well-defined impact on the first moment of the PDF for the seasonal mean atmospheric state that is manifested as an anomalous wave train over this region. For seasonal predictions, the results imply that the dominant contribution to seasonal predictability comes from the impact of SSTs on the first moment of the PDF, with the impact of SSTs on the second moment of the PDFs playing a secondary role

A review of predictability studies of the Atlantic sector climate on decadal time-scales

This review paper discusses the physical basis and the potential for decadal climate predictability over the Atlantic and its adjacent land areas. Many observational and modeling studies describe pronounced decadal and multidecadal variability in the Atlantic Ocean. However, it still needs to be quantified to which extent the variations in the ocean drive variations in the atmosphere and over land. In particular, although a clear impact of the Tropics on the midlatitudes has been demonstrated, it is unclear if and how the extratropical atmosphere responds to midlatitudinal sea surface temperature anomalies. Although the mechanisms behind the decadal to multidecadal variability in the Atlantic sector are still controversial, there is some consensus that some of the longer-term multidecadal variability is driven by variations in the thermohaline circulation. The variations in the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation appear to be predictable one to two decades ahead, as shown by a number of perfect model predictability experiments. The next few decades will be dominated by these multidecadal variations, although the effects of anthropogenic climate change are likely to introduce trends. Some impact of the variations of the thermohaline circulation on the atmosphere has been demonstrated in some studies so that useful decadal predictions with economic benefit may be possible

The impact of decadal-scale Indian Ocean Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies on Sahelian rainfall and the North Atlantic Oscillation

The sea surface temperatures (SSTs) of the tropical Indian Ocean show a pronounced warming since the 1950s. We have analyzed the impact of this warming on Sahelian rainfall and on the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) by conducting ensemble experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model. Additionally, we investigate the impact of the other two tropical oceans on these two climate parameters. Our results suggest that the warming trend in the Indian Ocean played a crucial role for the drying trend over the West Sahel from the 1950s to 1990s and may also have contributed to the strengthening of the NAO during the most recent decades

Understanding uncertainties in future Colorado River streamflow

Artículo -- Universidad de Costa Rica. Centro de Investigaciones Geofísicas, 2014The Colorado River is the primary water source for more than 30 million people in the United States and Mexico. Recent studies that project streamflow changes in the Colorado River all project annual declines, but the magnitude of the projected decreases range from less than 10% to 45% by the mid-twenty-first century. To understand these differences, we address the questions the management community has raised: Why is there such a wide range of projections of impacts of future climate change on Colorado River streamflow, and how should this uncertainty be interpreted? We identify four major sources of disparities among studies that arise from both methodological and model differences. In order of importance, these are differences in 1) the global climate models (GCMs) and emission scenarios used; 2) the ability of land surface and atmospheric models to simulate properly the high-elevation runoff source areas; 3) the sensitivities of land surface hydrology models to precipitation and temperature changes; and 4) the methods used to statistically downscale GCM scenarios. In accounting for these differences, there is substantial evidence across studies that future Colorado River streamflow will be reduced under the current trajectories of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions because of a combination of strong temperature-induced runoff curtailment and reduced annual precipitation. Reconstructions of preinstrumental streamflows provide additional insights; the greatest risk to Colorado River streamflows is a multidecadal drought, like that observed in paleoreconstructions, exacerbated by a steady reduction in flows due to climate change. This could result in decades of sustained streamflows much lower than have been observed in the ~100 years of instrumental record.Universidad de Costa Rica. Centro de Investigaciones GeofísicasLamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia UniversityUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Básicas::Centro de Investigaciones Geofísicas (CIGEFI