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Science 9 April 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5412, pp. 241 - 242
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5412.241
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News Focus

ATMOSPHERE:
A New Force in High-Latitude Climate

Richard A. Kerr

A pair of meteorologists is vying to show that the newly named Arctic Oscillation (AO), which alternately raises pressures over the pole and in a ring passing over southern Alaska and central Europe, is the prime mover of high-latitude climate shifts and may even be an agent of greenhouse-induced warming. They think the AO is a natural atmospheric response that can change minor perturbations into major climate shifts. Researchers are still analyzing many possible triggers for the AO, but whatever its cause, understanding it is going to help make sense out of high-latitude climate variability.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)