Abstract

Previous studies have attempted to unravel possible connections between leading decadal to multidecadal climate modes in the North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean basins, the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability in the North Atlantic, and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and Victoria Mode in the North Pacific. We use newly available climate model data and apply improvements to existing methods to rexamine relationships among the different modes. Our main tool is the Multi-Model Large Ensemble Archive, which includes 270 ensemble members and allows for isolation of the forced and internal components of climate variability. Our results suggest that any internal connections between these modes are indistinguishable from random noise. Further, external forcing is shown to affect each region in similar ways, suggesting that climate change could be an indirect link between the two basins, and can confound the interpretation of he relationship between the basins.