Nicholas Tyrrell added Interannual_variability.html  over 8 years ago

Commit id: 112b136c2d4b0a6ec390737090f78ed6a4da9814

deletions | additions      

         

From one year to the next, the global temperature fluctuates up and down around   an average temperature. If we compare the fluctuations of land surface   temperatures to the fluctuations of the ocean surface temperatures, we see that   the land temperature fluctuates more than the ocean. Why? We might expect   that the oceans are slower to respond to changes than the land. This is   certainly part of the story but we can do an experiment to test how important   this is.  In our experiment, we take a global climate model and we specify the ocean   surface temperatures; we make them vary up and down each year and see how the   land responds. The results show that the land varies *more* than the   ocean temperatures. The ocean variability - which we have input into the model -   is being amplified over the land. Interesting! But lets pull it apart a bit   more.