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Spatial classification of La Niña events

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Abstract

Thirty La Niña events have been selected from monthly mean sea surface temperature (SST) data of the Hadley Centre Global Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature (HadISST) and Centennial Observation-Based Estimates (COBE SST2) datasets from 1870 to 2013 based on a criterion of –0.5°С for a cold anomaly in the Niño 3.4 region (5° N–5° S, 170°–120° W) and its minimum duration of 5 months. The selected events are classified by hierarchical clustering analysis according to two characteristics: geographic coordinates and SST anomalies during the mature phase of La Niña. The objective classification method identifies two types of La Niña differing by the evolution of negative SST anomalies in the equatorial Pacific and by the Southern Oscillation Index.

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Correspondence to E. N. Voskresenskaya.

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Original Russian Text © E.N. Voskresenskaya, O.V. Marchukova, 2017, published in Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 2017, Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 125–134.

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Voskresenskaya, E.N., Marchukova, O.V. Spatial classification of La Niña events. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 53, 111–119 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433817010133

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433817010133

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