Anti-persistence in the global temperature anomaly field

L. M. V. Carvalho (1, 2) , A. A. Tsonis (3) , C. Jones (2) , H. R. Rocha (1) , P. S. Polito (4)

1 Department of Atmospheric Sciences [São Paulo]
2 ICESS - Institute for Computational Earth System Science [Santa Barbara]
3 Department of Mathematical Sciences [Milwaukee]
4 Dept. of Physical Oceanography

In this study, low-frequency variations in temperature anomaly are investigated by mapping temperature anomaly records onto random walks. We show evidence that global overturns in trends of temperature anomalies occur on decadal time-scales as part of the natural variability of the climate system. Paleoclimatic summer records in Europe and New-Zealand provide further support for these findings as they indicate that anti-persistence of temperature anomalies on decadal time-scale have occurred in the last 226 yrs. Atmospheric processes in the subtropics and mid-latitudes of the SH and interactions with the Southern Oceans seem to play an important role to moderate global variations of temperature on decadal time-scales.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Sciences de la Terre

L. M. V. Carvalho, A. A. Tsonis, C. Jones, H. R. Rocha, P. S. Polito. Anti-persistence in the global temperature anomaly field. Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, 2007, 14 (6), pp.723-733. ⟨hal-00302934⟩