The links between the categorised Southern Oscillation indicators and climate and hydrologic variables in Turkey

M. Çaǧatay Karabürk*, Ercan Kahya

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Some previous global and regional studies have indicated teleconnection between the extreme phases of the Southern Oscillation (SO) and Turkish climate and hydrologic variables; however, they failed to suggest a strong correlation structure. In this study, categorised Southern Oscillation index (SOI) and Multivariate ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) index (MEI) series were used to examine the far-reaching effects of the SO on temperature, precipitation and streamflow patterns in Turkey. These SO indicators were categorised into five subgroups according to their empirical distributions. Correlations between the categorised SO indicators and three analysis variables were computed using the Spearman's rho from lag-0 to lag-4. Significance of calculated correlations was tested at the 0.01 level for station-based analysis and at the 0.05 level for regional analysis. Temperature records demonstrated significant correlations with the categorised SOI and MEI in nearly half of the entire stations. For some categories, precipitation and streamflow were found to be correlated with the SO indicators in some stations mainly in western Turkey. Regional analyses of temperature and precipitation revealed a clear and strong correlation structure with the categorised SO indicators on a large portion of Turkey. This was not concluded by the earlier pertinent studies. Besides, this study showed that significant correlations were obtained not only for the SO extreme phases (namely, El Nino and La Nina) but also for neutral and moderate phases of the SO. Plausible explanations for the observed teleconnection are presented.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1927-1936
Number of pages10
JournalHydrological Processes
Volume23
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jun 2009

Keywords

  • Correlation
  • Multivariate ENSO index
  • Precipitation
  • Southern Oscillation index
  • Streamflow
  • Temperature
  • Turkey

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