What does AO stand for?

Another part is that the so-called Arctic Oscillation of wind patterns over the Arctic Ocean is now in a state that it does not allow build-up of old ice, but immediately flushes most ice into the North Atlantic.

Another part is that the so-called Arctic Oscillation of wind patterns over the Arctic Ocean is now in a state that it does not allow build-up of old ice, but immediately flushes most ice into the North Atlantic.

Natural climatic cycles such as the Arctic Oscillation play a role in year-to-year variations in ice cover.

In the late 1980s and 1990s the Arctic Oscillation was relatively warm, and so was the United States.

Building on this success in unraveling ENSO, meteorologists and oceanographers have begun to identify a host of other ocean-atmosphere oscillations operating in the earth's climate system: the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Arctic Oscillation, the Antarctic Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Indian Ocean Dipole, and the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave.

That creates stronger westerlies and increases the warm periods of the Arctic oscillation - the El Nino-like weather system that affects the northern hemisphere.

Thompson of the University of Washington called this pattern the Arctic oscillation in the May 1, 1998 GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS.

Another part is that the so-called Arctic Oscillation of wind patterns over the Arctic Ocean is now in a state that it does not allow build-up of old ice, but immediately flushes most ice into the North Atlantic.