Atmospheric & Solar Oscillations With Linkage To The Earth’s Mean Temperature Trend: An Assessment In The Context Of Global Warming Debate

Figure 7: Douglass and Christy UAH MSU tropical lower tropospheric data versus NINO34. Note the tropical atmosphere globally follows the NINO34 and thus the ENSO state. Largest departures were during the strong volcanic eruptions in the early 1980s and 1990s which helped cool the world’s atmosphere and oceans outside the NINO34 region.

I did a similar analysis of UAH global lower tropospheric data with the MEI Index. It shows also good agreement with some departure during periods of major volcanism in the early 1980s and 1990s.

Figure 8: Global monthly UAH MSU temperature anomaly versus MEI. There is good correlation except during high volcanism period in the early 1980s and 1990s which held down the warming associated with El Ninos.

Alaskan temperatures clearly show discontinuities associated with changes in the PDO.

Figure 9: Cold PDO phases are cold in Central Alaska, warm PDO were warm. Graph from Dr. Richard Keen, University of Colorado