Intra-annual Variations of North American Climate
J.J. Shinker, P.J. Bartlein, P.V. Killoran
Environmental Change Research Group
Department of Geography
University of Oregon

Visualization of the Seasonal Cycle

• Net radiation climatologies (stills)

• Net radiation and temperature climatologies (paired comparison)

• Pattern of seasonal cycle (small multiples)

• Net radiation and temperature (animation)

Basic Variables

• Mean sea-level pressure

• 500 mb Heights

• Temperature

• Precipitation (station and reanalysis data)

Mechanistic Variables

• Evaporation-Precipitation and moisture flux

• Latent heat flux and E-P moisture flux

• 500 mb Omega (vertical velocity)

• Precipitation and 500 mb Omega

Intermonthly Change

• Net Radiation (climatology and intermonthly change)  (climatology and intermonthly change) 

• Net Radiation and Temperature (intermonthly change)  (intermonthly change) 

• Precipitation and 500 mb Omega

Summary

• Visualization of the climate system can be aided by stills, paired comparisons, small multiples, and animations;
  
  

• Importance of intuitive color schemes;
  
  

• NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis dataset offers suite of variables previously unavailable;
  
  

• Intermonthly change maps highlight smaller scale climatic controls;
  
  

• Reanalysis dataset provides additional information on the effect circulation features have on climate variations;
  
  

• Future applications include comparison of climate indicies with intra-annual variations.
  
  http://geography.uoregon.edu/envchange/paclim2001/
  

  Bonus Variables

  Research was supported by the National Science Foundation,  for TEMPO (Testing Earth System Models with Paleoenvironmental Observations, ATM-9910638)