Authors: Igor I Zveryaev Abdel A Hannachi
Publish Date: 2011/10/28
Volume: 38, Issue: 3-4, Pages: 495-512
Abstract
Gridded monthly evaporation data for 1958–2006 from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution data set are used to investigate interannual variability of Mediterranean evaporation during cold and hot seasons and its relation to regional atmospheric dynamics sea surface temperature and atmospheric elements of the hydrological cycle The first EOF mode of Mediterranean evaporation explaining more than 50 of its total variance is characterized by the monopole pattern both in winter and summer However despite structural similarity the EOF1 of Mediterranean evaporation is affected by different climate signals in cold and hot seasons During winter the EOF1 is associated with the East Atlantic teleconnection pattern In summer there is indication of tropical influence on the EOF1 of Mediterranean evaporation presumably from Asian monsoon Both in winter and summer principal components of EOF1 demonstrate clear interdecadal signals with a stronger signature in summer associated with large sea surface temperature anomalies The results of a sensitivity analysis suggest that in winter both the meridional wind and the vertical gradient of saturation specific humidity GSSH near the sea surface contribute to the interdecadal evaporation signal In summer however it is likely that the signal is more related to GSSH Our analysis did not reveal significant links between the Mediterranean evaporation and the North Atlantic Oscillation in any season The EOF2 of evaporation accounts for 20 11 of its total variance in winter in summer Both in winter and summer the EOF2 is characterized by a zonal dipole with opposite variations of evaporation in western and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea This mode is associated presumably with smaller scale ie local effects of atmospheric dynamics Seasonality of the leading modes of the Mediterranean evaporation is also clearly seen in the character of their links to atmospheric elements of the regional hydrological cycle In particular significant links to precipitation in some regions have been found in winter but not in summerThis research was supported by the Special Grant of the Government of Russian Federation for the support of research projects implemented under the supervision of leading scientists at Russian Universities We also benefited from the support of the special grants 02740110019 NS334520105 and P920 from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science Some of this work was done while one of the authors AH was visiting the National Centre for Atmospheric Science NCAS at the University of Reading IZ acknowledges the support for his visit to Stockholm University from the International Meteorological Institute IMI at MISU The NCEP data were extracted from the NOAACIRES Climate Diagnostics Centre We thank the European Centre for MediumRange Weather Forecasts ECMWF for providing the ERA40 data and Dr Andy Turner for computing and providing the vertically integrated moisture fluxes We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that helped improve the manuscript
Keywords: