Winter Northern Hemisphere surface air temperature variability associated with the Arctic Oscillation and North Atlantic Oscillation

The interannual variability of winter surface air temperature ( SAT) in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) associated with the Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is studied. The AO and the NAO show different impacts on winter NH SAT variations. The AO affects the SAT over the Euro-Asian and African continents, whereas the NAO is more regional with the major effect on the SAT in the western North Africa. This discrepancy can be reflected in other atmospheric variables such as sea level pressure and geopotential height fields as well. The analyses in this paper also suggest that the AO-related signal can penetrate deeply into the stratosphere while the NAO one is largely a tropospheric phenomenon.