A global and tropical quasi-decadal oscillation of the atmosphere and Ocean

An oscillatory, quasi-periodic signal with a period of around 10 years was found in radiosonde- and satellite-measured datasets of lower stratospheric temperature. Power spectrum analysis and Fourier decomposition were used to characterize the temporal and vertical manifestations of the signal, while EOF analyses were used to analyze its spatial characteristics. The oscillation was found to be unrelated to the solar activity cycle, while it displayed coherence with similar oscillatory signals in ENSO, PDO and AMO indices, as well as with a quasi-decadal signal in SST data. Finally, the quasi-decadal signal in lower stratospheric temperature was found to have a small but measurable contribution to the signal of tropical cyclone potential intensity in the Atlantic MDR.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Agard, John Vincent

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kerry Emanuel.

• Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114373

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/114373