Climate impacts of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation
Open accessAbstract
The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is a near‐global scale mode of observed multidecadal climate variability with alternating warm and cool phases over large parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Many prominent examples of regional multidecadal climate variability have been related to the AMO, such as North Eastern Brazilian and African Sahel rainfall, Atlantic hurricanes and North American and European summer climate. The relative shortness of the instrumental climate record, however, limits confidence in these observationally derived relationships. Here, we seek evidence of these links in the 1400 year control simulation of the HadCM3 climate model, which produces a realistic long‐lived AMO as part of its internal climate variability. By permitting the analysis of more AMO cycles than are present in observations, we find that the model confirms the association of the AMO with almost all of the above phenomena. This has implications for the predictability of regional climate.
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The cycle periods are likely related to hemispheric oceanic and atmospheric oscillations that operate on time scales of less (SOI, IOD) or more (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation-AMO) than a decade.
“The cycle periods are likely related to hemispheric oceanic and atmospheric oscillations that operate on time scales of less (SOI, IOD) or more (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation-AMO) than a decade [50, 51].”
From Trends and cycles in rainfall, temperature, NDVI, IOD and SOI in the Mara-Serengeti: Insights for biodiversity conservation (2024) · cites this paper as [51]
Atlantic Multidecadal Variability modulates Sahel rainfall through its control of the Atlantic ITCZ.
“Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV; Kerr, 2000) modulates Sahel rainfall through its control of the Atlantic ITCZ (Knight et al., 2006;Zhang and Delworth, 2006;Mohino et al., 2011;Dieppois et al., 2015).”
From The tropical atlantic observing system (2019) · cites this paper as Knight et al., 2006
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- Authors
- Knight, J. R., Folland, C. K., & Scaife, A. A.
- Affiliations
- Met Office (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Knight, Jeff R.
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2006-09
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 17
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8007
- OpenAlex
- W2040763894
- Cited by
- 1,209
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 47 · 2024: 55 · 2023: 82 · 2022: 81 · 2021: 87 · 2020: 91 · 2019: 95 · 2018: 80 · 2017: 78 · 2016: 56 · 2015: 64 · 2014: 69 · 2013: 67 · 2012: 58
- FWCI
- 20.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Keywords
- Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, multidecadal climate variability, Sahel rainfall, Atlantic hurricanes, summer climate, natural climate variability, North Atlantic
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