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5 pages; International audience; L'impact de l'ENSO sur la région à pluies d'hiver d'Afrique du Sud a été peu étudié, alors qu’il s’agit d’une zone densément peuplée, grosse exportatrice de produits agricoles, et par ailleurs remarquable par sa biodiversité. La relation ENSO - précipitations d'hiver est analysée à partir de 682 pluviomètres sur la période 1950-1999. Le cumul saisonnier mai-juillet (MJJ) est corrélé positivement et significativement à l'ENSO depuis la rupture climatique de 1976/1977. Les forts cumuls de MJJ durant les événements ENSO résultent de séquences humides plus longues dans la région du Cap et plus fréquentes dans la région au nord de 33°S. Les séquences humides enregistrant entre 10 et 50 mm par jour sont aussi plus fréquentes. L'analyse de la dynamique atmosphérique (pression, vent) montre que les systèmes porteurs de précipitations sont plus creusés, plus étendus avec une trajectoire plus septentrionale durant les événements ENSO.

4 pages; International audience; Rainfall is a major component of Vitivinicultural Terroirs. In many regions, it controls a large part of water intake byvine and it has an important role in diseases occurrence. Winegrowers often record rainfall with only one or a couple ofrain gauges. Such a sparse coverage might not be accurate enough to capture efficiently the spatial variability ofrainfall, which is a necessary prerequisite for efficient crop management (e.g. for irrigation or spraying decisions, etc.).In order to study high resolution variability of rainfall, we implemented a 40 tipping bucket rain gauges network over anarea of 28 km² in the hilly region of Beaune (France). The mesh size of the network varies from 300 meters to 1,000meters.Between the 19th and the 22nd of January 2012, a rain sequence was recorded in the studied area. Using ConvectiveAvailable Potential Energy (CAPE) data and analysing atmospheric circulation patterns, this sequence has beenclassified as a stratiform precipitation event. During this 4-day span, rain accumulations varied from 11 mm to 21 mm.Geostatistical analysis of the rainfall field indicates that variability increases with distance, in an east-to-west patternmainly according with topography. Such a variation of about 100% on a four day stratiform rain accumulation eventwas unexpected. These observations, if confirmed by further measurements, might confirm that rain gauges network, asusually developed for rainfall monitoring in winegrowing regions, might not be tight enough to capture a strong localvariability. Consequently, water intake and parasites monitoring at the vineyard scale might be strongly biased whenassessed by a single rain gauge.

International audience; We analysed the relationship between El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and South Africa austral winter rainfall using a 682 raingauges daily rainfall database documenting the period 1950-1999. The May, June and July (MJJ) seasonal rainfall amount shows a positive correlation with the Niño3.4 index that becomes significant since the mid 70's. Wet spells properties (length, frequency and intensity) at the raingauge scale indicate that high (low) MJJ seasonal rainfall amounts recorded during El Niño (La Niña) events are the result of longer (shorter) wet spells in the Cape Town area and more (less) frequent wet spells north of 33°S. Wet spells with daily rainfall amounts ranging between 10 and 50 mm are also more (less) frequent. Atmospheric dynamics fields during wet spells feature lower (higher) pressure and northwesterly (southerly) wind anomalies in the troposphere over the region. This suggests that rain bearing systems are deeper and larger (thinner and smaller), and located further north (south) during El Niño (La Niña) events.

International audience

International audience; Trajectories of surface cyclones and anticyclones were constructed using an automated scheme by tracking local minima and maxima of mean daily sea level pressure data in the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis and the Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques coupled global climate Model (CNRM-CM3) SRES A2 integration. Mid-latitude lows and highs traveling in the North Pacific were tracked and daily frequencies were gridded. Transient activity in the CNRM-CM3 historical simulation (1950–1999) was validated against reanalysis. The GCM correctly reproduces winter trajectories as well as mean geographical distributions of cyclones and anticyclones over the North Pacific in spite of a general under-estimation of cyclones' frequency. On inter-annual time scales, frequencies of cyclones and anticyclones vary in accordance with the Aleutian Low (AL) strength. When the AL is stronger (weaker), cyclones are more (less) numerous over the central and eastern North Pacific, while anticyclones are significantly less (more) numerous over this region. The action of transient cyclones and anticyclones over the central and eastern North Pacific determines seasonal climate over the West Coast of North America, and specifically, winter weather over California. Relationships between winter cyclone/anticyclone behavior and daily precipitation/cold temperature extremes over Western North America (the West) were examined and yielded two simple indices summarizing North Pacific transient activity relevant to regional climates. These indices are strongly related to the observed inter-annual variability of daily precipitation and cold temperature extremes over the West as well as to large scale seasonally averaged near surface climate conditions (e.g., air temperature at 2 m and wind at 10 m). In fact, they represent the synoptic links that accomplish the teleconnections. Comparison of patterns derived from NCEP-NCAR and CNRM-CM3 revealed that the model reproduces links between cyclone/anticyclone frequencies over the Northeastern Pacific and extra-tropical climate conditions but is deficient in relation to tropical climate variability. The connections between these synoptic indices and Western weather are well reproduced by the model. Under advanced global warming conditions, that is, the last half of the century, the model predicts a significant reduction of cyclonic transients throughout the mid-latitude North Pacific with the exception of the far northern and northeastern domains. Anticyclonic transients respond somewhat more regionally but consistently to strong greenhouse forcing, with notably fewer anticyclones over the Okhotsk/Kamchatka sector and generally more anticyclones in the Northeastern Pacific. These modifications of synoptic weather result in regional feedbacks, that is, regional synoptic alterations of the anthropogenic warming signal around the North Pacific. In the eastern Pacific, for example, synoptic feedbacks, having to do especially with the northward shift of the eastern Pacific storm-track (responding, in turn, to a weaker equator-to-pole temperature gradient), are favorable to more anticyclonic conditions off the American mid-latitude west coast and more cyclonic conditions at higher latitudes. These circulation feedbacks further reduce the equator-to-pole temperature gradient by favoring high-latitude mean winter warming especially over a broad wedge of the Arctic north of the Bering Sea and moderating the warming along the mid-latitude west coast of north America while also reducing precipitation frequencies from California to Northern Mexico.

Using a new automated scheme, synoptic mid-latitudes cyclone and anticyclone trajectories have been constructed over the North Pacific from daily sea level pressure (SLP) data, covering the period 1950-2001. Over the North-Eastern Pacific, the strength of anticyclones diminished and their frequency became more variable, while cyclones intensified and presented further southerly trajectories since the mid-1970s. Thus, cyclonic and anticyclonic activities are significantly anti-correlated. These transient activity changes averaged out into anomalously low winter mean SLP in the Aleutian Low region, consistent with the positive phase of the North Pacific Oscillation, inducing positive sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies along the west coast of North America and negative in the central North Pacific Ocean. These conditions are associated with warmer air temperatures and more precipitation from Alaska to Mexico as well as over Southwestern United States in general.According to the Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques Coupled global climate Model version 3 (CNRM-CM3) simulations, the enhanced of greenhouse gases could significantly reduce the frequency of mid-latitude cyclones. These modifications could favor anticyclonic conditions over the East, reducing the anthropogenic warming along the west coast of North America and decreasing / increasing precipitation to the south / north of 45°N respectively., En utilisant un nouveau schéma automatique, les trajectoires des dépressions et des anticyclones synoptiques des moyennes latitudes du Pacifique Nord ont été construites à partir des données de la pression au niveau de la mer journalière (PNM) sur la période 1950-2001 Sur l'Est du Pacifique Nord, la force des anticyclones diminue et leur fréquence devient plus variable, pendant que les dépressions s'intensifient et présentent des trajectoires plus méridionales à partir du milieu des années 70. Ainsi, l'activité dépressionnaire et anticyclonique hivernales sont significativement anti-corrélées. Ces changements de l'activité transitoire se traduisent par des PNM plus faibles au niveau de la dépression des Aléoutiennes, en accord avec la phase positive de l'Oscillation Nord Pacifique, induisant des anomalies positives de la température de surface océanique (TSO) le long de la côte ouest de l'Amérique du Nord et des anomalies négatives de la TSO sur le centre du bassin. Ces conditions sont associées à des températures plus chaudes et plus de précipitations depuis l'Alaska jusqu'au Mexique, ainsi que sur le Sud-Ouest des Etats-Unis. Selon les simulations du Modèle global Couplé du Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques version 3, la fréquence hivernale des dépressions pourrait être significativement réduite dans un contexte de forte augmentation des gaz à effet de serre. Cette modification pourrait être favorable aux conditions anticycloniques sur l'Est, induisant une pondération du réchauffement anthropique le long de la côte ouest nord-américaine et une réduction / augmentation des précipitations sur les régions se situant au sud et au nord de 45°N respectivement

Quelle a été l'évolution des caractéristiques des dépressions et des anticyclones transitoires au cours des dernières décennies ? Comment pourraient-elles évoluer dans un contexte de réchauffement climatique global dû à l'augmentation des gaz à effet de serre ?