Relationship Between The NAO and Surface Heat Fluxes In The North Atlantic
Abstract
The NAO is the dominante mode of variability of the atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic. It's large influence on weather and climate fluctuations is well known. But in spite of a large number of studies concerning the effects, the formation and dynamics are hardly understood. In the past large efforts were carried out, to uncover influence of the sea surface temperture (SST). However, even though the discussion remains controvers, the influence on the NAO seems to be negligible on the small timescales up to one year. But one has to take into account that on these timescales the dependence between the turbulent heat fluxes between atmosphere and ocean and the SST is rather small. Instead the fluxes are crucially influenced by the wind. We hypothesize that there still exists a relation between NAO and SST, but this relation is non-linear. In this case an influence of the SST would be much more difficult to detect than an influence of the turbulent heat fluxes. In the present study the role of the turbulent heat fluxes for the NAO is investigated in the view of this hypothesis and the results will be discussed.
- Publication:
-
EGS General Assembly Conference Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002EGSGA..27.4575L