A TELECONNECTION STUDY OF INTERANNUAL SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE-FLUCTUATIONS IN THE NORTHERN NORTH-ATLANTIC AND PRECIPITATION AND RUNOFF OVERWESTERN SIBERIA

The spatial distributions of northern North Atlantic sea surface tempe rature and the high-latitude Northern Hemisphere sea level pressure an omalies averaged over six consecutive warm SST winters (1951-1956) and six consecutive cold SST winters (1971-1976) are examined. Three SLP anomaly difference (i.e., warm-cold winters) centers, significant at t he 5% level, are observed over the northern North Atlantic, Europe, an d western Siberia. This anomaly pattern is consistent in principle wit h what was identified in a related analyses by Palmer and Sun, who use d composite data from selected winter months. The SLP difference cente rs over the northern North Atlantic and western Siberia are in phase. The impact of the latter center upon the runoff from the underlying Ob and Yenisey rivers and especially the teleconnection between SST anom alies in the northern North Atlantic and runoff of those two rivers vi a the atmosphere are investigated. The temporal cross-correlation anal yses of 50 years (1930-1979) of records of SST, precipitation, and run off anomalies indicate that the winter SST anomalies in the northern N orth Atlantic are significantly correlated with the winter and followi ng summer runoff fluctuations of the Ob and Yenisey rivers. Positive ( negative) northern North Atlantic SST anomalies are related to less (m ore) precipitation, and hence, less (more) runoff, over western Siberi a. Discussions of possible physical mechanisms and processes that lead to the above relationships are attempted. The analyses of spatial dis tributions of precipitation in the warm and cold SST winters suggest t hat precipitation fluctuations over Europe and western Siberia may be affected by shifts of cyclone tracks associated with the SST variation s in the northern North Atlantic.