HR: 12:05h
AN: PP52B-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Teleconnection patterns and their application to paleoclimate problems
AU: * Huber, M M
EM: huberm@purdue.edu
AF: Matthew Huber, 550 Stadium Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47906
AB: We present results from a an investigation into modern modes of sea surface temperature variability and ther relationship to global climate anomalies. We find that the El Nino mode is an important driver of climate variation especially of temperature and precipitation at mid-to-high latitudes as has often been noted, but we also find that there are other tropical modes of variability that drive similarly strong responses which have not been considered before in a paleoclimate context. Chief among these important SST modes is a meridional mode of variability constituted by meridional shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone within the Atlantic and Pacific and changes in Indian Ocean SSTs. This pattern has been found to be important by a number of investigators and goes by several names (and may or may not be the same mode in various studies) but its connection with paleoclimate variability has not been recognized. We propose that this mode and others, rather than the El Nino mode may have played an important role in maintaing long term (i.e. throughough the Paleogene) patterns of high latitude warmth and moist conditions.
DE: 1605 Abrupt/rapid climate change (4901, 8408)
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (0429, 3309)
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005