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Portrait of Alex Vermeulen

Alex Vermeulen

Manager

Portrait of Alex Vermeulen

The association between the North Atlantic oscillation and the interannual variability of the tropospheric transport pathways in Western Europe

Author

  • J. A. G. Orza
  • M. Cabello
  • V. Galiano
  • Alex Vermeulen
  • A. F. Stein

Summary, in English

The variations in tropospheric transport pathways over a 20 year period, 1990-2009, are studied at six locations in Europe. Three Atlantic (Lisbon, Mace Head, and Cabauw) and three Mediterranean sites (Malaga and Elche in the western part and Lecce in the central Mediterranean) are considered. The work is based on the identification of flow types at each location by robust cluster analysis of the trajectories, the assessment of temporal trends for each advection pattern, and subsequent quantification of the association, at the monthly scale, between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index (NAOi) and the frequency of occurrence of the identified flows. This exploratory study demonstrates the usefulness of the approach for specific locations in a context where synoptic circulation/weather-type classifications are usually used. A different number of advection pathways were identified at each location. Common features to all the sites were prevalence of westerly flows, strong seasonal variability, and association of the air flow types to known synoptic situations in both phases of the NAO. The degree of association varies strongly with latitude, location within the Mediterranean basin, and closeness to the action centers. Overall, flows reaching Mace Head and Cabauw present stronger association to the NAO, which is substantially reduced at lower latitudes and is not significant at Lisbon. Significant temporal trends are found for northerly flows at Mace Head and Malaga, associated to changes at the beginning of the study period that are also present in the NAOi time series. WSW flows at Mace Head exhibit a steady decreasing trend over the whole period.

Publishing year

2012

Language

English

Pages

127-141

Publication/Series

Lagrangian Modeling of the Atmosphere

Volume

200

Document type

Conference paper

Publisher

American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Topic

  • Physical Geography

Conference name

AGU Chapman Conference on Advances in Lagrangian Modeling of the Atmosphere

Conference date

2011-10-09 - 2011-10-14

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0065-8448