AMO vs NH sea ice

The AMO index, which is based on Nth Atlantic SST, is cyclic with a period of about 60 years (Knight et al 2005 GRL).

 

Arctic sea ice correlates closely - note the inverse axis, ie the higher the AMO the lower the sea ice area

 

Satellite measurement of sea ice commenced in 1979 at the bottom of the AMO cycle.

 

In the next few years the Arctic sea ice area can be expected to increase as the AMO switches to cooling phase for the next 30 years.

 

AMO data is from here:

 

www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/correlation/amon.us.long.data

 

NH sea ice area data is from here:

 

arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/timeseries.anom.1979-2008

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