The role of changing synoptic circulation patterns on the climate of McCall Glacier, Alaska
Abstract
A recently funded project is seeking to relate ice core proxies from McCall Glacier, Alaska to climate change in northeastern Alaska over the past 250 years. One goal of this project is to relate changes in synoptic weather patterns to signals recorded in the ice core. A synoptic climatology for this region has been constructed based on atmospheric reanalysis data using the method of self-organizing maps (SOMs). The synoptic climatology has identified 35 sea level pressure patterns that describe the range of synoptic conditions that influence this area. Temperature and precipitation anomalies are calculated for each pattern providing a link between the synoptic patterns and warm or cold and wet or dry days which influence the signal recorded in the ice core. The synoptic climatology is also used to assess the role of varying synoptic weather pattern frequency to observed changes in temperature and precipitation over the past 50 years. This analysis has been applied to a shift in climate centered on 1976 and also on recent (past 15 years) changes in climate in Alaska. The ultimate goal of this project is to identify a relationship between the ice core proxies and changes in the frequency of synoptic weather patterns that influenced the area during the last 50 years. With this relationship we hope to develop a paleo-synoptic climatology based on the full 250 year record contained in the ice core.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.A41D0132C
- Keywords:
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- 0724 CRYOSPHERE / Ice cores;
- 1616 GLOBAL CHANGE / Climate variability;
- 3349 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Polar meteorology;
- 3364 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Synoptic-scale meteorology