The Southern Annular Mode: Variability, trends, and climate impacts across the Southern Hemisphere

Ryan L. Fogt and Gareth J. Marshall

Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2020, vol. 11, issue 4

Abstract: The Southern Annular Mode (SAM) is the leading mode of extratropical Southern Hemisphere climate variability, associated with changes in the strength and position of the polar jet around Antarctica. This variability in the polar jet drives large fluctuations in the Southern Hemisphere climate, from the lower stratosphere into the troposphere, and stretching from the midlatitudes across the Southern Ocean to Antarctica. Notably, the SAM index has displayed marked positive trends in the austral summer season (stronger and poleward shifted westerlies), associated with stratospheric ozone loss. Historical reconstructions demonstrate that these recent positive SAM index values are unprecedented in the last millennia, and fall outside the range of natural climate variability. Despite these advances in the understanding of the SAM behavior, several areas of active research are identified that highlight gaps in our present knowledge. This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends > Earth System Behavior

Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.652

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:wirecc:v:11:y:2020:i:4:n:e652

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().