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Trends in the frequency of synoptic types in central-southern Chile in the period 1961–2012 using the Jenkinson and Collison synoptic classification

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Abstract

Atmospheric circulation patterns in southern Chile (42° 30′ S) were studied in order to determine and analyse the most characteristic synoptic types and their recent trends, as well as to gain an understanding of how they are associated with low-frequency variability patterns. According to the Jenkinson and Collison (J&C) classification method, a 16-point grid of sea-level pressure data was employed. The findings reveal that some synoptic types show statistically significant trends with a 95% confidence level, positively for anticyclonic westerly hybrids (AW) and advective types for third and fourth quadrant wind flows (W, NW, and N) and negatively for SW and cyclonic hybrids (CS and CSW). A model has been constructed of the linear regression of some weather types with teleconnections that most affect Chile: the undetermined types (U), AW were associated with El Niño or the warm phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), whereas the cyclonic northerly and cyclonic northeasterly types (CN and CNE) were associated with La Niña or cool phase of the PDO. The weather types associated with Antarctic Oscillation (AAO) in its positive phase are anticyclonic northerly and northeasterly and northerly advection types, while in its negative phase are cyclonic southwesterly and advection types.

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Notes

  1. Available at http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/soi/soi.dat

  2. Available at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/enso/mei.ext/table.ext.html

  3. Available at http://jisao.washington.edu/pdo/PDO.latest

  4. Available at http://www.jisao.washington.edu/aao/slp/

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge data input from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis project, taken from its website http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/. Furthermore, this research study was financed by the FONDECYT Initiation into Research Projects No. 11130629 and 11160059, FONDECYT Postdoctoral Grant No. 3130633, the Climatology Group (2014SGR300, Catalan Government), and the Convenio de Desempeño UTA-MINEDUC. Luis Outeiro also wants to thank Xunta de Galicia Postdoctoral program I2C (2015–2018) for their support. We would like to acknowledge the OLISTIS team, a language services cooperative specialised in Earth science (www.olistis.org).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Pablo Sarricolea

  2. Climatology Group, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Pablo Sarricolea, Oliver Meseguer-Ruiz & Javier Martín-Vide

  3. CITRID, Risk Reduction And Disaster Program, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Pablo Sarricolea

  4. Departamento de Ciencias Históricas y Geográficas, Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile

    Oliver Meseguer-Ruiz

  5. Department of Social Sciences, University of Los Lagos, Osorno, Chile

    Luis Outeiro

  6. Department of Applied Economy, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Luis Outeiro

  7. Institute of Oceans and Fisheries, University of Bristish Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Luis Outeiro

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  1. Pablo Sarricolea
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  2. Oliver Meseguer-Ruiz
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  3. Javier Martín-Vide
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  4. Luis Outeiro
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Correspondence to Pablo Sarricolea.

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Sarricolea, P., Meseguer-Ruiz, O., Martín-Vide, J. et al. Trends in the frequency of synoptic types in central-southern Chile in the period 1961–2012 using the Jenkinson and Collison synoptic classification. Theor Appl Climatol 134, 193–204 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2268-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2268-5

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