https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-020-00515-4
Review
Multidecadal variability in the climate system: phenomena and mechanisms
1
Department of Physics, Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research Utrecht, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
2
Research School of Earth Sciences and ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
3
Department of Mathematics, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Received:
24
March
2020
Accepted:
5
June
2020
Published online:
19
June
2020
An open and fundamental issue in climate dynamics is the origin of multidecadal variability in the climate system. Resolving this issue is essential for adequate attribution of human-induced climate change. The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective on multidecadal variability from the analysis of observations and results from model simulations. Data from the instrumental record indicate the existence of large-scale coherent patterns of multidecadal variability in sea surface temperature. Combined with long time series of proxy data, these results provide ample evidence for the existence of multidecadal sea surface temperature variations. Results of a hierarchy of climate models have provided several mechanisms of this variability, ranging from pure atmospheric forcing, via internal ocean processes to coupled ocean-atmosphere interactions. An important problem is that current state-of-the-art climate models underestimate multidecadal variability. We argue that these models miss important processes in their representation of ocean eddies and focus on a robust mechanism of multidecadal variability which is found in multi-century simulations with climate models having a strongly eddying ocean component.
© The Author(s) 2020
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