Identification

Title

Are the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Northern Annular Mode distinguishable?

Abstract

This study addresses the question of whether persistent events of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Northern Annular Mode (NAM) teleconnection patterns are distinguishable from each other. Standard daily index time series are used to specify the amplitude of the NAO and NAM patterns. The above question is examined with composites of sea level pressure, and 300- and 40-hPa streamfunction, along with tests of field significance. A null hypothesis is specified that the NAO and NAM persistent events are indistinguishable. This null hypothesis is evaluated by calculating the difference between time-averaged NAO and NAM composites. It is found that the null hypothesis cannot be rejected even at the 80% confidence level. The wave-breaking characteristics during the NAM life cycle are also examined. Both the positive and negative NAM phases yield the same wave-breaking properties as those for the NAO. The results suggest that not only are the NAO and NAM persistent events indistinguishable, but that the NAO/NAM events are neither confined to the North Atlantic, nor are they annular.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7vh5p5g

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2006-11-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

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Use constraints

Copyright 2006 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-17T17:04:36.272970

Metadata language

eng; USA