Climate Change skeptics? [ot]

THE NAO AND WEST GREENLAND CLIMATE

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) refers to a large-scale alternation of atmospheric mass between the Icelandic Low and the Azores High pressure centers, most pronounced in wintertime (Hurrell, 1995; Dickson et al., 1996). Together with the better-known El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the NAO explains much of the interannual variability in worldwide weather and climate (Hurrell and van Loon, 1997). Calculations based on differences between historical air-pressure measurements from Lisbon, Portugal (or alternatively, the Azores or Gibraltar) and Stykkishólmur, Iceland yield an NAO index extending back into the 19th century (Hurrell, 1995). Analyses of ice cores, tree rings and other proxies have found long-term evidence of decadal-scale climatic cycles around the North Atlantic, although their relationship to the modern NAO remains problematic (Schmutz et al., 2000).

Positive or high-NAO conditions classically involve a low-pressure anomaly centered on Greenland, with a zonal high-pressure anomaly across the Atlantic to its south, and strong westerly winds in between. Surface winds tend to be northerly over Greenland and eastern Canada, bringing down cold Arctic air. Conversely, negative or low-NAO conditions involve higher pressure over Greenland and lower pressure to the south. Surface winds tend to be southerly and air temperatures warmer over Greenland and eastern Canada. Figure 2 graphs the Lisbon–Iceland winter NAO index over 1900–2001. NOA index values in Figure 2 reflect the difference of normalized (relative to 1864–1983) sea level pressures between Lisbon, Portugal and Stykkishólmur/Reykjavík, Iceland, averaged for the months of December through March. These data cover winters from 1899/1900 through 2000/2001. Also shown are the three-year running means. The most extreme and persistent negative phase occurred during the 1950s and 1960s. After 1970, NAO behavior shifted into a cyclical, persistent and extreme positive phase. Anomalous negative conditions interrupted this positive phase in the winters of 1995–1996 and 2000–2001.

source: Hamilton, Brown & Rasmussen (2003)

The NE ski area issue and the Greenland (NAO) paper are two different subjects and were discussed in two different papers.

In classic human-style, we overestimate our own importance with claims that we are the main cause (this is what man-made-global-warming indicates) and somehow can affect a substantial turn of these cycles that have been creeping along well before we were just a slime on a rock and will be creeping along well after we return to slime.

THIS is why this so-called battle against warming or climate change or whatever you would call it seems so asinine to me.

Once again, no one whosoever has said we are the "main cause" of the Earth's climate cycles or the "turn" of those cycles. What is being said is we now have a significant role in how this and future cycles play out.

Geoengineering


Geoengineering,the deliberate modification of the climate, has been investigated as a possible response to global warming, e.g. by NASA[158] and the Royal Society.[159] Techniques under research fall generally into the categories solar radiation management and carbon dioxide removal, although various other schemes have been suggested. Research is at a generally early stage, with no large-scale schemes currently deployed.

Hansen also is clearly motivated by what he views as his obligation to future generations.

No, the "so-called battle" is being waged and bankrolled by oil companies and paleolithic republicans attempting to wield it as an ideological litmus test and cudgel.

Extended Forecast: Northern Hemisphere Could Be in for Extreme Winters

The acronym isnt there, perhaps, but at this point, what reasonable person expects to see it?

The Debate is Over...

The arctic climate system is changing so dynamically that the rules of the game are changing," Greene says. "This is not the same Arctic Ocean we've known. The Arctic and North Atlantic oscillations are changing in ways we hadn't anticipated." The interplay, which has always been fairly consistent, he says, has now become "a wild card" affecting our weather.

EFFECTS OF AMO AND PDO ON TEMPERATURES



We have shown last week how the warm PDO mode is associated with more frequent El Ninos which are accompanied and followed by a global warming. The warm mode of the AMO although it can lead to cold and snowy periods in winter, on an annual basis correlates with widespread global warmth (see first figure in this post).



Thus when both the PDO and AMO are in their warm mode, one might expect more global warmth and when they are both in their cold mode, general global coolness. Although one might argue they are just reflecting the overall warming and cooling, recall that the ocean transitions from one mode to the other in both cases are abrupt, occurring in just a year or two, suggesting as the AR4 does that these oscillations are ocean gyre or thermohaline circulation based and thus natural.



Indeed when we plot and add the two indices we see a suggestion of global cooling from the 1880s to 1920s, global warming from the late 1920s to early 1950, a global cooling from the late 1950s to late 1970s and then a global warming. Dark blue line represents the sum.

ED, LARRY, HEALY, KMAN, BOBINC etal...

I am willing to bet that you ALL condone and fully support NASA's GEOENGINEERING research and efforts in order to "stabilize and combat" the recent CC.