Premium
A principal component and spectral analysis of European rainfall
Author(s) -
Tabony R. C.
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0196-1748
DOI - 10.1002/joc.3370010307
Subject(s) - principal component analysis , climatology , homogeneous , anomaly (physics) , spectral analysis , magnitude (astronomy) , environmental science , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , geography , geology , mathematics , statistics , spectroscopy , physics , combinatorics , quantum mechanics , astronomy , condensed matter physics
The main patterns of European rainfall anomalies were obtained from a principal component analysis of 182 homogeneous rainfall series from 1861 to 1970. The most important component corresponded to an anomaly of the same sign and magnitude covering most of the area examined. The principal components were essentially the same for all seasons and limited networks of stations back to 1786 showed that they were stable with lime. Spectral analysis of the patterns revealed cycles in European rainfall at periods of 2.4 years in summer and 2.1 and 5 years in the winter half year. The first of these is the most likely to represent a permanent feature of the atmosphere.