Modeling of Tropical Forcing of Persistent Droughts and Pluvials over Western North America: 1856-2000*

From: Journal of Climate | Date: October 1, 2005| Author: Seager, Richard; Kushnir, Yochanan; Herweijer, Celine; Naik, Naomi; Velez, Jennifer | Copyright information

ABSTRACT

The causes of persistent droughts and wet periods, or pluvials. over western North America are examined in model simulations of the period from 1856 to 2000. The simulations used either (i) global sea surface temperature data as a lower boundary condition or (ii) observed data in just the tropical Pacific and computed the surface ocean temperature elsewhere with a simple ocean model. With both arrangements, the model was able to simulate many aspects of the low-frequency (peri...

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