Complex network theory provides a powerful framework to statistically
investigate the topology of local and non-local statistical interrelationships,
i.e. teleconnections, in the climate system. Climate networks constructed from
the same global climatological data set using the linear Pearson correlation
coefficient or the nonlinear mutual information as a measure of dynamical
similarity between regions, are compared systematically on local, mesoscopic
and global topological scales. A high degree of similarity is observed on the
local and mesoscopic topological scales for surface air temperature fields
taken from AOGCM and reanalysis data sets. We find larger differences on the
global scale, particularly in the betweenness centrality field. The global
scale view on climate networks obtained using mutual information offers
promising new perspectives for detecting network structures based on nonlinear
physical processes in the climate system.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figure