Manifestation of Equatorial Processes in Water Vapor Variations over Europe

Abstract

We studied the variations in time series of the near-surface water vapor partial pressure on the territory of Europe over a multiyear period. It is found that the contribution of fluctuations on time scales from 2 to 5 years is from 35 to 60% of the variance of the interannual variations. The spatial dependences of the local coherence between harmonics on 2–4 scales of Niño3.4 index and the water partial pressure in Europe are determined. We determined that the correlation of these variations reaches 0.7–0.9. It is shown that westward-propagating planetary waves play a significant role in energy transfer from equatorial regions to midlatitudes. This energy begins to increase in the winter of an El Niño year and reaches the maximum a year later.