Download Climate Timeseries: AMO SST: NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory

Climate Timeseries

AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation) Index

The AMO is currently not updated due to the source dataset (Kaplan SST) not being updated. We apologize for the inconvience. NOAA/NCEI has a time-series of the AMO based on the NOAA ERSSTV5. NCAR has AMO code. Note their definition removes the global mean.

Description:

The timeseries are calculated from the Kaplan SST dataset which is updated monthly. It is basically an index of the N Atlantic temperatures. Time series are created; a smoothed version and an unsmoothed version. In addition, two files starting at 1948 are produced to be used in the Correlation webpages.

Time Interval: Monthly
Time Coverage: 1856 to Jan 2023
Update Status: updated monthly

Get Data:

AMO unsmooth, long: Standard PSL Format (What is standard format?)
AMO smoothed, long.
AMO unsmoothed, short (1948 to Jan 2023).
AMO smoothed, short (1948 to Jan 2023).

Source:

Timeseries is calculated at NOAA PSL.

Method:

Use the Kaplan SST dataset (5x5).
Compute the area weighted average over the N Atlantic, basically 0 to 70N.
Detrend that time series
Optionally smooth it with a 121 month smoother.

For those who require unaltered data, the following is an "not detrended" version of the N. Atlantic monthly averages with the 1951-1980 NOAA ERSST climatology added back in.
N. Atlantic SST averages, unsmoothed & not detrended (1856 to Jan 2023) and the climatolgy used (from the NOAA ERSST V2 SST, interpolated to a 5x5 grid).

References and Citation:

Enfield, D.B., A.M. Mestas-Nunez, and P.J. Trimble, 2001: The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and its relationship to rainfall and river flows in the continental U.S., Geophys. Res. Lett., 28: 2077-2080.