Circulation patterns in phase space: a multinormal distribution?

Abstract

Even though the circulation analogs have no extended-range forecast capability, they nevertheless offer a convenient way of studying the gross structure of the phase space of circulation patterns. A thorough study of the root-mean-square distances (rmsd) between the best circulation analogs, considered as an indicator for the relative frequency in the phase space, has been performed. It was shown that in a phase-average sense, when the density characteristics are considered only as a function of distance from the climate mean, the distribution of circulation patterns is statistically indistinguishable from a multinormal distribution. -from Author