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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 108, NO. C4,
8078,
doi:10.1029/2000JC000542,
2003
Modes of atmospheric variability over the Southern Ocean
Ian Simmonds
School of Earth Sciences,
University of Melbourne,
Parkville,
Victoria,
Australia
Abstract
The atmosphere over the Southern Ocean (SO) has been historically very poorly observed. Until fairly recently, the climate
means of important parameters were known only imperfectly. In the modern era, new sources of data, particularly a wide range
of products to come from remote sensing, have alleviated this problem. In addition to these developments, the advent of “data
assimilation” and the conduct of “reanalyses” now means that available data may be used in “optimal” ways to obtain meteorological
analyses of a quality not available heretofore. This solid base means that we are now for the first time able to confidently
document and understand the rich variety of modes of variability over the region. In this paper, we examine aspects of SO
atmospheric variability and focus particularly on those associated with the mean sea level pressure (MSLP) in the 40-year
National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis. Discussion is devoted to many aspects of the behavior of
cyclonic systems over the Ocean and the variabilities and trends shown in these. Of the variabilities also explored here are
those associated with the high-latitude mode, the semiannual oscillation (SAO), and the Antarctic circumpolar wave (ACW).
A wide range of physical processes drives these features and their variability and we investigate some of these here.
Published 4
January
2003.
Index Terms: 1610 Global Change: Atmosphere (0315, 0325); 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309); 3309 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Climatology (1620); 3339 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Ocean/atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504).
Read Full Article (file size: 2487538 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Simmonds, I.
(2003),
Modes of atmospheric variability over the Southern Ocean,
J. Geophys. Res.,
108(C4),
8078,
doi:10.1029/2000JC000542.
Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.
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