Projection of Climate Change onto Modes of Atmospheric Variability

Two possible interpretations of forced climate change view it as projecting, either linearly or nonlinearly, onto the dominant modes of variability of the climate system. An evaluation of these two interpretations is performed using annual mean sea level pressure (SLP) and surface air temperature (SAT) fields obtained from integrations of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory coupled general circulation model forced with varying concentrations of greenhouse gases. The dominant modes of SLP both represent much of the total variability and remain important in warmer climates. With SAT, however, the dominant modes are often related to variations in the sea-ice edge and so do not remain important once the ice has retreated; those unrelated to sea ice remain dominant in the warmer climates but represent smaller fractions of the total variability. In general, climate change tends to project most strongly onto the more dominant modes. The change in SLP projects partially onto the top two modes in the Northern Hemisphere, reflecting both an overall decrease in hemispheric SLP as well as the pattern of change. In the Southern Hemisphere the change projects negligibly onto the dominant patterns between equilibrium climates but very strongly onto the Antarctic oscillation–like mode in the transient integrations. Changes in SAT project partially onto the dominant modes but relate more to the mean warming rather than the pattern of change. In general, the change projects most strongly onto the more dominant modes. In all SLP domains, the projection of climate change overwhelmingly manifests itself as a linear translation in the mode, consistent with the linear interpretation. In SAT domains related to sea-ice variability, the projection reflects an increased tendency toward ice-free regimes, consistent with the nonlinear perspective; however this nonlinear projection represents only a small portion of the overall climate change.