Publication: Springtime connections between the large-scale sea-level pressure field and gust wind speed over Iberia and the Balearics
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2011-01-21
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European Geosciences Union / Copernicus Publications
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Abstract
This paper investigates, by means of Singular Value Decomposition analysis, the springtime relationships between the mean sea-level pressure field over the North Atlantic and the regional wind gusts over the Iberian Peninsula, identifying the main atmospheric circulation patterns linked to gust wind speed anomaly configurations. The statistical significance of the obtained modes is investigated by means of Monte Carlo approach. The analysis highlighted that the covariability is dominated by two main largescale features of the atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic. The first mode relates to Iberian gust wind speeds to the Scandinavian pattern (SCAND), linking the large-scale pattern to above-normal wind gusts. The second covariability mode, associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) pattern, correlates with maximum wind speeds over Iberia. An enhanced spring NAO pattern is related to positive (negative) wind gust correlations over northern (southern) Iberia. To find true relationships between large-scale atmospheric field and the gust wind speeds, composite maps were built up to give an average atmospheric circulation associated with coherent wind gust variability over Iberia.
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© Author(s) 2011. This work has been partially supported by the research projects CGL2007-61328/CLI, CGL2009-07950, UE SafeWind Grant Agreement No. 213740 and VA025A10-2. Two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments and suggestions. The authors wish to thank the following institutions which provided us with data: ERA40 from the European Center for Weather Medium Forecast (ECWMF), the Iberian Wind Dataset from the Spanish Meteorological Service (AEMET: Agencia Estatal de Meteorología, Spain) and the teleconnection indices by the US Climate Prediction Center from the web site http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/data/teledoc/telecontents.shtml.