Regional sensitivity of Greenland precipitation to NAO variability

Abstract

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a primary mode, of interannual climate variability for the North Atlantic Ocean Basin and influences the climate over much of Europe and parts of North America. Knowledge of past variability of this oscillatory system is essential for efforts to understand, model, and predict future climate variability, particularly under a warming Earth scenario. As Greenland precipitation is modulated by the NAO, ice core-derived accumulation histories are incorporated into multi-proxy reconstructions. New ice core records from Greenland demonstrate that the NAO's influence on accumulation is temporally and spatially variable. The results presented indicate that (1) NAO modulation of accumulation is strongest and most persistent along the west-central side of Greenland, (2) records from central Greenland should be avoided and (3) the spatial character of the precipitation response to NAO variability has been influenced by the 20th century warming in the high Arctic. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.