GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 30, NO. 4, 1156, doi:10.1029/2002GL015651, 2003

The role of snow cover fluctuations in multiannual NAO persistence

Roxana Bojariu and Luis Gimeno

Facultad de Ciencias de Ourense, Universidad de Vigo,
Ourense, Spain

Abstract

[1]   In this article authors explore the relation in the observed data between the Eurasian snow cover anomalies and the NAO variability on interannual to decadal time scales. Results reached in this study suggest that in winter and early spring, NAO type atmospheric circulation influences the extent of snow cover and the snow cover affects the atmosphere in the late spring, summer and early autumn leading to a mechanism that seems to be responsible for the multiannual NAO persistence in the last half century.

Received 11 June 2002; revised 24 July 2002; accepted 12 August 2002; published 19 February 2003.

Index Terms: 3309 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Climatology (1620); 1863 Hydrology: Snow and ice (1827); 3319 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: General circulation; 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309).

Citation: Bojariu, R., and L. Gimeno, The role of snow cover fluctuations in multiannual NAO persistence, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(4), 1156, doi:10.1029/2002GL015651, 2003.

Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.