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Recent cooling in coastal southern Greenland and relation with the North Atlantic Oscillation
Author(s) -
Hanna Edward,
Cappelen John
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2002gl015797
Subject(s) - north atlantic oscillation , greenland ice sheet , atlantic multidecadal oscillation , climatology , groenlandia , geology , oceanography , period (music) , future sea level , climate change , sea surface temperature , ice sheet , sea ice , arctic ice pack , antarctic sea ice , physics , acoustics
Analysis of new data for eight stations in coastal southern Greenland, 1958–2001, shows a significant cooling (trend‐line change −1.29°C for the 44 years), as do sea‐surface temperatures in the adjacent part of the Labrador Sea, in contrast to global warming (+0.53°C over the same period). The land and sea temperature series follow similar patterns and are strongly correlated but with no obvious lead/lag either way. This cooling is significantly inversely correlated with an increased phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) over the past few decades (r = −0.76), and will probably have significantly affected the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet.