The role of snow cover fluctuations in multiannual NAO persistence

Abstract

In this article authors explore the relation in the observed data between the Eurasian snow cover anomalies and the NAO variability on interannual to decadal time scales. Results reached in this study suggest that in winter and early spring, NAO type atmospheric circulation influences the extent of snow cover and the snow cover affects the atmosphere in the late spring, summer and early autumn leading to a mechanism that seems to be responsible for the multiannual NAO persistence in the last half century.