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Observed Climatic Variability: Spatial Structure

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Decadal Climate Variability

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASII,volume 44))

Abstract

Atmospheric dynamicists and statisticians have been working more or less independently, in an effort to make sense out of the structure and behaviour of the climate system. Dynamicists have tended to focus on variables such as geopotential height and wind, whereas statisticians have been primarily concerned with long term trends in regionally, hemispherically or globally averaged quantities such as surface air temperature. The dynamicists have confined their attention almost exclusively to wintertime phenomena, whilst those working to document global temperature trends have considered all seasons. The differing research priorities are rooted in differing paradigms concerning the spatial structure and seasonality of climate variability. In this chapter we will examine these contrasting ways of conceptualizing and analyzing climate variability and attempt to reconcile them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Seattle, USA

    John M. Wallace

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  1. John M. Wallace
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, OX1 3PU, Oxford, UK

    David L. T. Anderson

  2. Institut für Meereskunde, Universität Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105, Kiel, Germany

    Jürgen Willebrand

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Wallace, J.M. (1996). Observed Climatic Variability: Spatial Structure. In: Anderson, D.L.T., Willebrand, J. (eds) Decadal Climate Variability. NATO ASI Series, vol 44. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03291-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03291-6_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-08258-0

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