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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 12, NUMBER 4, APRIL 1999

JOURNAL ARTICLES...
EUROPEAN CLIMATE

Item #d99apr26

“Oceanic Forcing of the Wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation and European Climate,”M. J. Rodwell, D. P. Rodwell, and C. K. Folland,Nature 398, 320-323 (1999).

An atmospheric GCM used to study the ocean’s influence on the climate of the North Atlantic and Europe indicated that much of the multiannual and multidecadal winter-climate variability can be backcasted from North Atlantic sea-surface temperature. Seemingly, the ocean’s surface influences the atmosphere by evaporation, precipitation, and heating, in turn producing changes in atmospheric temperature, precipitation, and convective turbulence over Europe. If true, this correlation could allow European winter-climate prediction several years in advance.

Item #d99apr27

“Holocene Periodicity in North Atlantic Climate and Deep-Ocean Flow South of Iceland,” G. G. Bianchi and I. N. McCave,Nature 397, 515-517 (1999).

Sediment grain-size data from the Iceland Basin were used to estimate the historic speed of deep-water flow past the southern tip of Iceland, an important component of the thermohaline circulation of the North Atlantic and a significant determinant of European climate. Observed changes in flow correlate with the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period and occur during the whole Holocene with a periodicity of about 1500 years. Generally, the data indicate faster flow during times of warmer climate in northern Europe; but during the early Holocene, slower flow is also associated with warmer periods.