A Large-Ensemble Model Study of the Wintertime AO–NAO and the Role of Interannual Snow Perturbations

Abstract

Numerous studies have hypothesized that surface boundary conditions or other external mechanisms drive the hemispheric mode of atmospheric variability known as the Arctic Oscillation (AO), or its regional counterpart, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). However, no single external factor has emerged as the dominant forcing mechanism, which has led, in part, to the characterization of the AO–NAO as a fundamental internal mode of the atmospheric system. Nevertheless, surface forcings may play a considerable role in modulating, if not driving, the AO–NAO mode. In this study, a pair of large-ensemble atmospheric GCM experiments (with SST climatology), one with prescribed climatological snow mass and another with freely varying snow mass, is conducted to investigate the degree to which the AO–NAO is modulated by interannual variability of surface snow conditions. Statistical analysis of the results indicates that snow anomalies are not required to produce the AO–NAO mode of variability. Nevertheless, interannual variations in snow mass are found to exert a modulating influence on the AO–NAO mode. Snow variations excite the AO pattern over the North Atlantic sector, produce correlated hemispheric AO features throughout the troposphere and stratosphere, and generate autumn sea level pressure anomalies over Siberia that evolve into the winter AO–NAO. These numerical modeling results are consistent with previous observational analyses that statistically link the AO–NAO mode with the Siberian high and associated snow cover variations.