ACINN Graduate Seminar - WS 2024/25

2024-12-04 at 12:00 (on-line & on-site)

Understanding Centennial Climate Drivers: Large-Scale Patterns and Greenland’s Warming Periods

Florina Schalamon

Department of Geography and Regional Science, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

 

The WEG_Re project investigates centennial climate drivers on glaciers in Greenland by analyzing atmospheric dynamics during two major warming periods: the early 20th century warming and the ongoing Arctic warming. By combining observational data from Alfred Wegener’s 1929–1931 expedition with recent measurements (2022-ongoing) and reanalysis datasets, the project offers a unique dataset spanning nearly a century. This provides an unprecedented opportunity to assess how atmospheric conditions influence Greenland’s regional climate.

 

In this seminar, I will present recent my analysis of large-scale atmospheric patterns (LSPs). Using self-organizing maps (SOM) to cluster 500hPa geopotential height fields, I identified eight predominating LSPs and explored their relationship with local air temperature anomalies. My findings suggest that while the mechanisms driving local temperature variability remain consistent over time, differences in temperature anomalies are largely connected to shifts in the frequency of LSPs rather than changes in their underlying influence. This highlights the critical role of atmospheric circulation patterns in shaping Greenland’s climate over the past century.

 

The seminar will conclude with an outlook on a case study comparing historic datasets from Wegener’s expedition and modern observations. I will discuss the potential of these datasets to enhance our understanding of centennial-scale climate variability and the value of integrating historical observations into contemporary climate research.

 

 

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