How the Combined Effect of Climate Drivers Influences Seasonal Rainfall Patterns
Channel: BSC CNS
Date: 2023-05-04

🗣SORS/WomenInBSC: A Web of Tele-Connections: How the Combined Effect of Climate Drivers Influences Seasonal Rainfall Patterns

Speaker: Laurel DiSera, The International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI). Columbia University Climate School. New York, USA. and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES). Columbia University. New York, USA

Abstract: There is on-the-ground demand to improve forecast skill of anomalous precipitation events, which would provide decision makers with the means to support their communities. This study  investigates anomalous rainfall events that are often caused by cross-time scale interactions of large-scale climate modes of variability, such as the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). First, this research focuses on furthering the understanding of how to identify the independent and joint rainfall signals contributed by (in this case) the MJO and ENSO based on observations and, second, identifies if rainfall signals can be explained through a linear or nonlinear cross-timescale interference analysis. Here, composites of rainfall anomalies are created from separate (“independent”) and joint ENSO and MJO occurrences. The independent composites suggest that it is possible to identify the individual signatures from several climate drivers on observed rainfall. However, joint analyses expose distinct ENSO- and MJO-related rainfall distributions that cannot be seen when an independent composite analysis is conducted. Generally speaking, global precipitation variability can be a result of both linear and nonlinear crosstimescale interactions of these (and other) modes of climate variability, depending on their magnitude and when and where the interaction occurs. The methodology is a completely general approach and can be used to analyze other climate drivers or modes of variability at global or regional scales.

Further information here: https://www.bsc.es/research-and-development/research-seminars/sorswomeninbsc-web-tele-connections-how-the-combined-effect-climate-drivers-influences-seasonal