STATE OF THE CLIMATE IN 2009

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ABSTRACT—M. O. Baringer, D. S. Arndt, and M. R. JohnSOnThe year was characterized by a transition from awaning La Niña to a strengthening El Niño, which firstdeveloped in June. By December, SSTs were more than2.0°C above average over large parts of the central andeastern equatorial Pacific. Eastward surface currentanomalies, associated with the El Niño, were strongacross the equatorial Pacific, reaching values similarto the 2002 El Niño during November and December2009. The transition from La Niña to El Niño stronglyinfluenced anomalies in many climate conditions, rangingfrom reduced Atlantic basin hurricane activity to largescale surface and tropospheric warmth.Global average surface and lower-troposphere temperaturesduring the last three decades have been progressivelywarmer than all earlier decades, and the 2000s(2000–09) was the warmest decade in the instrumentalrecord. This warming has been particularly apparent inthe mid- and high-latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphereand includes decadal records in New Zealand, Australia,Canada, Europe, and the Arctic. The stratospherecontinued a long cooling trend, except in the Arctic.Atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations continuedto rise, with CO 2increasing at a rate above the 1978to 2008 average. The global ocean CO 2uptake flux for2008, the most recent year for which analyzed data areavailable, is estimated to have been 1.23 Pg C yr -1 , whichis 0.25 Pg C yr -1 smaller than the long-term average andthe lowest estimated ocean uptake in the last 27 years.At the same time, the total global ocean inventory ofanthropogenic carbon stored in the ocean interior as of2008 suggests an uptake and storage of anthropogenicCO 2at rates of 2.0 and 2.3 ±0.6 Pg C yr -1 for the decadesof the 1990s and 2000s, respectively. Total-column ozoneconcentrations are still well below pre-1980 levels buthave seen a recent reduction in the rate of decline whileupper-stratospheric ozone showed continued signs ofongoing slow recovery in 2009. Ozone-depleting gas concentrationscontinued to decline although some halogenssuch as hydrochlorofluorocarbons are increasing globally.The 2009 Antarctic ozone hole was comparable in size torecent previous ozone holes, while still much larger thanthose observed before 1990. Due to large interannualvariability, it is unclear yet whether the ozone hole hasbegun a slow recovery process.Global integrals of upper-ocean heat content for thelast several years have reached values consistently higherthan for all prior times in the record, demonstrating thedominant role of the oceans in the planet’s energy budget.Aside from the El Niño development in the tropical Pacificand warming in the tropical Indian Ocean, the PacificDecadal Oscillation (PDO) transitioned to a positive phaseduring the fall/winter 2009. Ocean heat fluxes contributedto SST anomalies in some regions (e.g., in the NorthAtlantic and tropical Indian Oceans) while dampeningexisting SST anomalies in other regions (e.g., the tropicaland extratropical Pacific). The downward trend in globalchlorophyll observed since 1999 continued through 2009,with current chlorophyll stocks in the central stratifiedoceans now approaching record lows since 1997.Extreme warmth was experienced across large areasof South America, southern Asia, Australia, and NewZealand. Australia had its second warmest year on record.India experienced its warmest year on record; Alaska hadits second warmest July on record, behind 2004; and NewZealand had its warmest August since records began 155years ago. Severe cold snaps were reported in the UK,China, and the Russian Federation. Drought affected largeparts of southern North America, the Caribbean, SouthAmerica, and Asia. China suffered its worst drought infive decades. India had a record dry June associated withthe reduced monsoon. Heavy rainfall and floods impactedCanada, the United States, the Amazonia and southernSouth America, many countries along the east and westcoasts of Africa, and the UK. The U.S. experienced itswettest October in 115 years and Turkey received itsheaviest rainfall over a 48-hr period in 80 years.Sea level variations during 2009 were strongly affectedby the transition from La Niña to El Niño conditions,especially in the tropical Indo-Pacific. Globally, variationsabout the long-term trend also appear to have been influencedby ENSO, with a slight reduction in global meansea level during the 2007/08 La Niña event and a returnto the long-term trend, and perhaps slightly higher values,during the latter part of 2009 and the current El Niñoevent. Unusually low Florida Current transports wereobserved in May and June and were linked to high sea leveland coastal flooding along the east coast of the UnitedStates in the summer. Sea level significantly decreasedalong the Siberian coast through a combination of wind,ocean circulation, and steric effects. Cloud and moistureincreased in the tropical Pacific. The surface of the westernequatorial Pacific freshened considerably from 2008to 2009, at least partially owing to anomalous eastwardadvection of fresh surface water along the equator duringthis latest El Niño. Outside the more variable tropics, thesurface salinity anomalies associated with evaporation andS12 | juNE 2010
precipitation areas persisted, consistent with an enhancedhydrological cycle.Global tropical cyclone (TC) activity was the lowestsince 2005, with six of the seven main hurricane basins(the exception is the Eastern North Pacific) experiencingnear-normal or somewhat below-normal TC activity.Despite the relatively mild year for overall hurricaneactivity, several storms were particularly noteworthy:Typhoon Morakot was the deadliest typhoon on recordto hit Taiwan; Cyclone Hamish was the most intense cycloneoff Queensland since 1918; and the state of Hawaiiexperienced its first TC since 1992.The summer minimum ice extent in the Arctic was thethird-lowest recorded since 1979. The 2008/09 borealsnow cover season marked a continuation of relativelyshorter snow seasons, due primarily to an early disappearanceof snow cover in spring. Preliminary data indicate ahigh probability that 2009 will be the 19th consecutive yearthat glaciers have lost mass. Below normal precipitation ledthe 34 widest marine terminating glaciers in Greenland tolose 101 km 2 ice area in 2009, within an annual loss rateof 106 km 2 over the past decade. Observations show ageneral increase in permafrost temperatures during thelast several decades in Alaska, northwest Canada, Siberia,and Northern Europe. Changes in the timing of tundragreen-up and senescence are also occurring, with earliergreen-up in the High Arctic and a shift to a longer greenseason in fall in the Low Arctic.The Antarctic Peninsula continues to warm at a ratefive times larger than the global mean warming. Associatedwith the regional warming, there was significant ice lossalong the Antarctic Peninsula in the last decade. Antarcticsea ice extent was near normal to modestly above normalfor the majority of 2009, with marked regional contrastswithin the record. The 2008/09 Antarctic-wide australsummer snowmelt was the lowest in the 30-year history.This 20th annual State of the Climate report highlightsthe climate conditions that characterized 2009, includingnotable extreme events. In total, 37 Essential ClimateVariables are reported to more completely characterizethe State of the Climate in 2009.STATE OF THE CLIMATE IN 2009 juNE 2010 |S13
Page 8 and 9: Luo, Jing-Jia, Research Institute f
Page 10 and 11: Tedesco, Marco, Department Earth an
Page 12 and 13: 4. THE TROPICS.....................
Page 16 and 17: I. INTRODUCTION—M. O. Baringer an
Page 18 and 19: Table 1.1 The GCOS Essential Climat
Page 20 and 21: S18 | juNE 2010
Page 22 and 23: Stratospheric TemperatureCloudiness
Page 25: Source Datasets Sectionhttp://www.p
Page 28 and 29: HOW do WE KNOW THE WORLD HAS WARMED
Page 30 and 31: Fig. 2.6. As for Fig. 2.1 but for l
Page 32 and 33: Fig. 2.10. Change in TCWV from 2008
Page 34 and 35: Precipitation anomalies in 2009, ov
Page 36 and 37: Fig. 2.18. Seasonal SCE anomalies (
Page 38 and 39: USING SI-TRACABLE GLOBAL POSITIONIN
Page 40 and 41: 6) Lake levels—C. BirkettLake vol
Page 42 and 43: Fig. 2.30. (a) The daily AO index f
Page 45 and 46: (C) Carbon monoxide (CO)There has b
Page 47 and 48: Table 2.5. Mixing ratios, radiative
Page 50 and 51: the mid-1990s but has since levelle
Page 52 and 53: with all 42 glaciers observed retre
Page 54 and 55: of 0.1° and 5 days (Kaiser et al.
Page 56 and 57: Fig. 3.1. (a) Yearly mean SSTAs in
Page 58 and 59: (Fig. 3.3c). It is interesting that
Page 60 and 61: strong there, consistent with anoma
Page 62 and 63: cont'RECENT ADVANCES IN OUR UNDERST
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is to cause SST to rise if oceanic
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egions around the subtropical salin
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Fig 3.17. Principal empirical ortho
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Fig. 3.19. Daily estimates of the s
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Fig. 3.22. (top) The 2009 SSH anoma
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to update the CO 2climatology, ther
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µmol kg -1 or about half of the ac
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Fig. 3.31. (a) Average MODIS-Aqua C
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latitudes, chlorophyll and thermal
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Fig. 4.4. (a) Anomalous 850-hPa win
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(Fig. 4.6). These include four MJO
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Fig. 4.8. NOAA’s ACE index expres
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Fig. 4.14. ASO 2009: Anomalous 200-
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Fig. 4.17. The tracks of all TCs th
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Several previous studies have shown
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followed by TY Linfa and TS Nangka
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The Philippines were severely affec
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The historical SIO TC data is proba
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Fig. 4.26. Global anomalies of TCHP
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degree resolution NASA TRMM rainfal
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F i g. 4.32 . TRMM (a) mean and (b)
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THE forgotten sub-BASIN—THE centr
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5. THE ARCTIC—J. Richter-Menge, E
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and North America (south of 55° la
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Fig. 5.8. 2007-09 Atlantic water la
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d. Sea ice cover—D. Perovich, R.
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e. Land1) Vegetation—D. A. Walker
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Fig. 5.18. Total annual river disch
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negative SCD anomalies were evident
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with records beginning in 1873, the
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(QuikSCAT, 2000-09) microwave remot
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6. ANTARCTICAa. Overview—R. L. Fo
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(SCAR) report ‘Antarctic Climate
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these stations in April, August, an
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e. 2008-2009 Seasonal melt extent a
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positive ice-season duration anomal
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7. REGIONAL CLIMATESa. Introduction
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first half of the year (January-Jun
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its second wettest such period. Sev
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California began the year with mode
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The first drought occurred in March
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Fig. 7.8. (a) Annual mean temperatu
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Fig. 7.11. (a) Annual mean temperat
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EXTREME rainfall and the flood of t
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Fig. 7.14. Composite for standardiz
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Fig. 7.17. Daily maximum temperatur
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(ii) PrecipitationDecember to Febru
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For Zimbabwe, the rainfall season,
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Fig. 7.28. Annual mean temperature
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Fig. 7.31. Seasonal anomalies (1961
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(1706-2009), and new national recor
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cold in southern and central Finlan
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EXCEPTIONAL storm strikes northern
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7.32b). April was particularly mild
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to -44 о С) persisted in southern
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Fig. 7.39. Weather conditions in De
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on the 1971-2000 climatology) for a
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excess rainfall, while 11 subdivisi
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4) Southwest Asia(i) Iraq—M. Roge
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Wales. The warmth was particularly
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The most significant severe thunder
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mm thick, which fell on parts of No
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and Vanua Levu islands (Fiji) as a
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Table 7.5. Maximum temperature anom
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8. SEASONAL SUMMARIES—Mike Halper
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Fig. 8.5. Jun-Aug 2009 (top) surfac
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTSIn addition to the m
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CFCCFC-11CFC-12CH 4Chl satCIIFENClC
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OAFlux Objectively Analyzed Air-Sea
Page 203 and 204:
Ashok, K., S. K. Behera, S. A. Rao,
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Cangialosi, J. P., and L. A. Avila,
Page 207 and 208:
Francis, J. A., W. Chan, D. J. Leat
Page 209 and 210:
Hudson, J. M. G., and G. H. R. Henr
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Landsea, C. W., and W. M. Gray, 199
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Meinen, C. S., M. O. Baringer, and
Page 215 and 216:
Ramaswamy, V., M. D. Schwarzkopf, W
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——, ——, T. C. Peterson, and
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Wang, L., C. Derksen, and R. Brown,
Page 224:
Monthly average temperature anomali
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STATE OF THE CLIMATE IN 2009

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