Climate variability and atmospheric teleconnection from satellite observed cloud fluctuations

To investigate the low-frequency variability of the large-scale circulation over the tropics and its relationship with different regions of the globe, statistics of cloud fluctuations, as inferred from outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) are used. The data consists of seven years of global OLR in a 2.5 x 2.5-deg grid derived from NOAA polar orbiting satellite observations. The time series of area-averaged monthly deviation from the seven-year mean of OLR over an equatorial Central Pacific region is presented. It is shown that positive and negative deviations reflect local drier and wetter than normal conditions, respectively. Consideration is given to teleconnection based on the Central Pacific variations and to southern oscillation contributions.