A catalog of moisture sources for continental climatic regions. Issue 6 (24th June 2014) - Nieto, Raquel
Abstract This technical note describes a catalog of moisture sources for two sets of continental climatic regions: one based on regions with similar late 20th century mean climate and similar projected late 21st century precipitation changes, and the other widely used in IPCC assessment reports. By illustrating with one region by classification, the European one was selected and we identify and characterize all the major sources of moisture, and analyze their interannual variability and the role of the three dominant modes of global climate variability, including the El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Northern and Southern Annular Modes (NAM, SAM). We also estimate the influence of those oceanic regions that will see the greatest increases in evaporation rate in future years.