UEA ENV Climatic Research Unit Climate Data Pressure & Circulation




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Trans Polar Index (TPI)

The TPI is defined as the normalized pressure difference between Hobart and Stanley.

The index was first suggested by Pittock (1980,1984) and has been updated and analysed further by Jones et al. (1999).

When using the trans polar index, please cite:

Jones P.D., Salinger M.J. and Mullan A.B. (1999) Extratropical circulation indices in the Southern Hemisphere based on station data. International Journal of Climatology 19, 1301-1317. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0088(199910)19:12%3C1301::AID-JOC425%3E3.0.CO;2-P

Other references:

Pittock A.B. (1980) Patterns of climatic variation in Argentina and Chile - I Precipitation, 1931-60. Monthly Weather Review, 108, 1347-1361. doi: 10.1175/1520-0493(1980)108%3C1347:POCVIA%3E2.0.CO;2

Pittock A.B. (1984) On the reality, stability and usefulness of Southern Hemisphere teleconnections. Australian Meteorological Magazine, 32, 75-82. www.bom.gov.au/jshess/docs/1984/pittock.pdf (opens a PDF file)

Turney C.SM., Jones R.T., Lister D., Jones P., Williams A.N., Hogg A., Thomas Z.A., Compo G.P., Xungang Y., Fogwill C.J., Palmer, J., Colwell S., Allan R., Visbeck M. (2015) Anomalous mid-twentieth century atmospheric circulation change over the South Atlantic compared to the last 6000 years. Environmental Research Letters 11, 064009. doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/6/064009

FilenameDescription
Trans Polar Index
tpi.dat for year = 1895 to endyear, format(i5,12f7.2,f8.2) year, 12 * monthly value, annual value.
Missing values represented by -9.99
Pressure data
tpi_hob.dat Pressure data for Hobart, Australia.
Format(2x,i4,1x,i4,a) startyear, endyear, sitename
then for year = 1895 to endyear, format(i4,1x,12i6) year, 12 * monthly value
Missing values represented by -10, divide by 10 for millibars
tpi_stan.dat Pressure data for Stanley, Falklands.
Format(2x,i4,1x,i4,a) startyear, endyear, sitename
then for year = 1895 to endyear, format(i4,1x,12i6) year, 12 * monthly value
Missing values represented by -10, divide by 10 for millibars
tpi_cappem.dat Pressure data for Cape Pembroke/Stanley/Mt Pleasant, Falklands - Turney et al. (2015).
Format(2x,i4,1x,i4,a) startyear, endyear, sitename
then for year = 1895 to endyear, format(i4,1x,12i6) year, 12 * monthly value
Missing values represented by -10, divide by 10 for millibars

License

These datasets are made available under the Open Database License. Any rights in individual contents of the datasets are licensed under the Database Contents License under the conditions of Attribution and Share-Alike.

Please use the attribution Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia

Updated: November 2015, Phil Jones