Online Resources for Alternating Effects of Climate Drivers on Altamaha River Discharge

Alternating Effects of Climate Drivers on Altamaha River Discharge to Coastal Georgia, USA

Estuaries and Coasts

Joan E. Sheldon1

Adrian B. Burd

Department of Marine Sciences

University of Georgia

Athens, GA 30602-3636, USA

1Corresponding author:

e-mail:

Online Resource 1 Consensus of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) year designations derived from five indices. Year is the ENSO year, which starts in October of the stated year. JMA = Florida State University (2008) designation based on the Japan Meteorological Agency sea surface temperature (SST) index.ONI =our categorization of table values of the Oceanic Niño Index (NOAA 2008). NOAA codes 3-month running means of SST as warm or cold episodes according to a minimum anomaly of 0.5°C and event duration of 5 months. We further categorized episodes as moderate if the annual extreme anomaly was > 1°C and as strong if it was > 1.5°C. MEI = our categorization of table values and recommended designations of the Multivariate ENSO Index (Wolter and Timlin 1993; NOAA 2008). Anomalies ≥ 0.5 were classified as ENSO events, with those ≥1.4 classified as strong events. BEST = our categorization of table values of the Bivariate ENSO Timeseries (Smith and Sardeshmukh 2000; NOAA 2008). Years were classified as El Niño or La Niña if the index was -1 or 1 (respectively) for 3 months during August-March. SOI = our categorization of calculated values of the Southern Oscillation Index using sea level pressure data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Anomalies greater than 0.5, 1, or 1.5 were categorized as weak, moderate, or strong, with a minimum event duration of 5 months in at least the weak category. Consensus (7 categories) includes all event strength levels (weak, moderate, strong). Simplified Consensus (3 categories) groups moderate with strong events and weak with neutral events

References

Florida State University. ENSO Index According to JMA SSTA (1868-present). Accessed 2008.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Bivariate EnSo Timeseries or the "BEST" ENSO Index. Accessed 2008.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Historical El Niño/ La Niña episodes (1950-present). Accessed 2008.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI). Accessed 2008.

Smith, Catherine A., and Prashant D. Sardeshmukh. 2000. The effect of ENSO on the intraseasonal variance of surface temperatures in winter. International Journal of Climatology 20: 1543-1557.

Wolter, Klaus, and Michael S. Timlin. 1993. Monitoring ENSO in COADS with a seasonally adjusted principal component index. In Proceedings of the 17th Climate Diagnostics Workshop, 52-57. Norman, OK: NOAA/NMC/CAC, NSSL, Oklahoma Clim. Survey, CIMMS and the School of Meteor., Univ. of Oklahoma.

1