The Perfect Ocean for Drought
Top Cited Papers
- 31 January 2003
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 299 (5607) , 691-694
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1079053
Abstract
The 1998–2002 droughts spanning the United States, southern Europe, and Southwest Asia were linked through a common oceanic influence. Cold sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the eastern tropical Pacific and warm SSTs in the western tropical Pacific and Indian oceans were remarkably persistent during this period. Climate models show that the climate signals forced separately by these regions acted synergistically, each contributing to widespread mid-latitude drying: an ideal scenario for spatially expansive, synchronized drought. The warmth of the Indian and west Pacific oceans was unprecedented and consistent with greenhouse gas forcing. Some implications are drawn for future drought.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Circumglobal Teleconnections, the Jet Stream Waveguide, and the North Atlantic OscillationJournal of Climate, 2002
- Climate Assessment for 2001Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2002
- Climate Assessment for 2000Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2001
- Climate Assessment for 1999Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2000
- Model assessment of regional surface temperature trends (1949–1997)Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1999
- Detecting the Nonstationary Response of ENSO to Greenhouse WarmingJournal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 1999
- Progress during TOGA in understanding and modeling global teleconnections associated with tropical sea surface temperaturesJournal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 1998
- The Arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fieldsGeophysical Research Letters, 1998
- Anomalous ENSO Occurrences: An Alternate View*Journal of Climate, 1997
- Global and Regional Scale Precipitation Patterns Associated with the El Niño/Southern OscillationMonthly Weather Review, 1987