Daily mean sea level pressure reconstruction for the European - North Atlantic Region for the period 1850-2003

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Date
2006-06-15
Authors
Ansell, T. J.
Jones, P. D.
Allan, R. J.
Lister, D.
Parker, D. E.
Brunet, M.
Moberg, A.
Jacobeit, J.
Brohan, P.
Rayner, N. A.
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American Meteorological Society
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Abstract
The development of a daily historical European–North Atlantic mean sea level pressure dataset (EMSLP) for 1850–2003 on a 5° latitude by longitude grid is described. This product was produced using 86 continental and island stations distributed over the region 25°–70°N, 70°W–50°E blended with marine data from the International Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS). The EMSLP fields for 1850–80 are based purely on the land station data and ship observations. From 1881, the blended land and marine fields are combined with already available daily Northern Hemisphere fields. Complete coverage is obtained by employing reduced space optimal interpolation. Squared correlations (r 2) indicate that EMSLP generally captures 80%–90% of daily variability represented in an existing historical mean sea level pressure product and over 90% in modern 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analyses (ERA-40) over most of the region. A lack of sufficient observations over Greenland and the Middle East, however, has resulted in poorer reconstructions there. Error estimates, produced as part of the reconstruction technique, flag these as regions of low confidence. It is shown that the EMSLP daily fields and associated error estimates provide a unique opportunity to examine the circulation patterns associated with extreme events across the European–North Atlantic region, such as the 2003 heat wave, in the context of historical events.
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Keywords
Europe , NE Atlantic , Barometric pressure , North Atlantic Ocean , EMSLP
Citation
ANSELL, T. J., JONES, P. D., ALLAN, R. J., LISTER, D., PARKER, D. E., BRUNET, M., MOBERG, A., JACOBEIT, J., BROHAN, P., RAYNER, N. A., AGUILAR, E., ALEXANDERSSON, H., BARRIENDOS, M., BRANDSMA, T., COX, N. J., DELLA-MARTA, P. M., DREBS, A., FOUNDA, D., GERSTENGARBE, F., HICKEY, K., JÓNSSON, T., LUTERBACHER, J., NORDLI, Ø., OESTERLE, H., PETRAKIS, M., PHILIPP, A., RODWELL, M. J., SALADIE, O., SIGRO, J., SLONOSKY, V., SRNEC, L., SWAIL, V., GARCÍA-SUÁREZ, A. M., TUOMENVIRTA, H., WANG, X., WANNER, H., WERNER, P., WHEELER, D. & XOPLAKI, E. 2006. Daily Mean Sea Level Pressure Reconstructions for the European–North Atlantic Region for the Period 1850–2003. Journal of Climate, 19, 2717-2742. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3775.1
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© Copyright 2006 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 Page 2 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (https://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyrights@ametsoc.org.