[h=2]5.2. Assessing the tropical and extratropical impact To investigate the impact of the tropical and extratropical forcing on generating NAO events the mean state of the atmosphere is forced in the barotropic model with the
confined to 0°–30° N or 30°–90° N, respectively, for both positive and negative NAO events. The model is run to equilibrium. The meridional velocity anomalies from the simulations are shown in
Fig. 5. For each NAO phase, firstly, only the response to tropical forcing is shown, then only the response to extratropical forcing and finally the response to tropical and extratropical forcing together.
Fig. 5. Meridional wind anomalies simulated by the barotropic model when the mean circulation at 300 hPa is forced with the anomalous
and run to equilibrium. First the forcing is restricted to the tropical band (0°–30°
N, left panels), where in panel a) the positive NAO forcing (
) is used and in d) the negative NAO forcing is used (
). Second, the forcing is applied only in the extratropics (30° −90°
N, middle panels), similarly in b) the positive NAO forcing (
) is used and in e) the negative NAO forcing is used (
). Finally to show the overall effect of using the anomalous NAO forcing, the entire hemisphere is forced, in c) with
and in f) with
. The contour intervals are 1 m/s and negative values are indicated in blue.