The Association Between the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Interannual Variability of the Tropospheric Transport Pathways in Western Europe. Orza, J. A. G., Cabello, M., Galiano, V., Vermeulen, A. T., & Stein, A. F. In Lin, J C & Gerbig, C, editors, Lagrangian Modellng of the Atmosphere, pages 127–141. American Geophysical Union, 2012.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
The variations in tropospheric transport pathways over a 20 year period, 1990– 2009, are studied at six locations in Europe. Three Atlantic (Lisbon, Mace Head, and Cabauw) and three Mediterranean sites (Málaga and Elche in the western part and Lecce in the central Mediterranean) are considered. The work is based on the identification of flow types at each location by robust cluster analysis of the trajectories, the assessment of temporal trends for each advection pattern, and subsequent quantification of the association, at the monthly scale, between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index (NAOi) and the frequency of occurrence of the identified flows. This exploratory study demonstrates the usefulness of the approach for specific locations in a context where synoptic circulation/weather- type classifications are usually used. A different number of advection pathways were identified at each location. Common features to all the sites were prevalence of westerly flows, strong seasonal variability, and association of the air flow types to known synoptic situations in both phases of the NAO. The degree of association varies strongly with latitude, location within the Mediterranean basin, and close- ness to the action centers. Overall, flows reaching Mace Head and Cabauw present stronger association to the NAO, which is substantially reduced at lower latitudes and is not significant at Lisbon. Significant temporal trends are found for northerly flows at Mace Head andMálaga, associated to changes at the beginning of the study period that are also present in the NAOi time series. WSW flows at Mace Head exhibit a steady decreasing trend over the whole period.
@incollection{Orza2012,
abstract = {The variations in tropospheric transport pathways over a 20 year period, 1990– 2009, are studied at six locations in Europe. Three Atlantic (Lisbon, Mace Head, and Cabauw) and three Mediterranean sites (M{\'{a}}laga and Elche in the western part and Lecce in the central Mediterranean) are considered. The work is based on the identification of flow types at each location by robust cluster analysis of the trajectories, the assessment of temporal trends for each advection pattern, and subsequent quantification of the association, at the monthly scale, between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index (NAOi) and the frequency of occurrence of the identified flows. This exploratory study demonstrates the usefulness of the approach for specific locations in a context where synoptic circulation/weather- type classifications are usually used. A different number of advection pathways were identified at each location. Common features to all the sites were prevalence of westerly flows, strong seasonal variability, and association of the air flow types to known synoptic situations in both phases of the NAO. The degree of association varies strongly with latitude, location within the Mediterranean basin, and close- ness to the action centers. Overall, flows reaching Mace Head and Cabauw present stronger association to the NAO, which is substantially reduced at lower latitudes and is not significant at Lisbon. Significant temporal trends are found for northerly flows at Mace Head andM{\'{a}}laga, associated to changes at the beginning of the study period that are also present in the NAOi time series. WSW flows at Mace Head exhibit a steady decreasing trend over the whole period.},
author = {Orza, J. A. G. and Cabello, M. and Galiano, V. and Vermeulen, A. T. and Stein, A. F.},
booktitle = {Lagrangian Modellng of the Atmosphere},
doi = {10.1029/2012GM001315},
editor = {Lin, J C and Gerbig, C},
file = {:C$\backslash$:/Users/alex.vermeulen/AppData/Local/Mendeley Ltd./Mendeley Desktop/Downloaded/Orza et al. - 2012 - The Association Between the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Interannual Variability of the Tropospheric Transpor.pdf:pdf},
keywords = {NAO,advection pathways,back trajectories,classification,synoptic typing,temporal trend},
pages = {127--141},
publisher = {American Geophysical Union},
title = {{The Association Between the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Interannual Variability of the Tropospheric Transport Pathways in Western Europe}},
year = {2012}
}

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