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Climate
Causes of the northern high-latitude land surface winter climate change
Article first published online: 18 JUL 2007
DOI: 10.1029/2007GL030196
Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.
Additional Information
How to Cite
, , , and (2007), Causes of the northern high-latitude land surface winter climate change, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L14702, doi:10.1029/2007GL030196.
Publication History
- Issue published online: 18 JUL 2007
- Article first published online: 18 JUL 2007
- Manuscript Accepted: 14 JUN 2007
- Manuscript Revised: 18 MAY 2007
- Manuscript Received: 29 MAR 2007
Keywords:
- northern high-latitude land surface;
- Arctic Oscillation;
- Aleutian Low
[1] In the past two decades, the northern high-latitude (>40°N, NHL) land surface winter climate has experienced some of the most rapid changes on Earth, warming at almost 2.5 times the global average warming. Here we examine impacts of two dominant climate modes - Arctic Oscillation (AO) and Aleutian Low (AL) - on the winter NHL land surface temperature for the period 1958–2004, showing that 1) a combination of the AO and AL explains 70% of the variance of the NHL land surface temperature variability, including the cooling during the 1960s and 1970s and the persistent warming thereafter; and 2) interactions between the AO and AL tend to constrain impacts of the extremes of the AO and AL and minimize spatiotemporal extremes in the NHL climate. The amplification of the winter NHL land surface warming relative to the global average warming can be attributed to the combination of the AO and AL, although the extent to which the greenhouse warming may influence the AO and AL is uncertain.