SUMMARY ERA-40 is a re-analysis of meteorological observations from September 1957 to August 2002 produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in collaboration with many institutions. The observing system changed considerably over this re-analysis period, with assimilable data provided by a succession of satellite-borne instruments from the 1970s onwards, supplemented by increasing numbers of observations from aircraft, ocean-buoys and other surface platforms, but with a declining number of radiosonde ascents since the late 1980s. The observations used in ERA-40 were accumulated from many sources. The first part of this paper describes the data acquisition and the principal changes in data type and coverage over the period. It also describes the data assimilation system used for ERA-40. This benefited from many of the changes introduced into operational forecasting since the mid-1990s, when the systems used for the 15-year ECMWF re-analysis (ERA-15) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) re-analysis were implemented. Several of the improvements are discussed. General aspects of the production of the analyses are also summarized.A number of results indicative of the overall performance of the data assimilation system, and implicitly of the observing system, are presented and discussed. The comparison of background (short-range) forecasts and analyses with observations, the consistency of the global mass budget, the magnitude of differences between analysis and background fields and the accuracy of medium-range forecasts run from the ERA-40 analyses are illustrated. Several results demonstrate the marked improvement that was made to the observing system for the * Corresponding author: European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Shinfield Park, Reading RG2 9AX, UK. e-mail: adrian.simmons@ecmwf. southern hemisphere in the 1970s, particularly towards the end of the decade. In contrast, the synoptic quality of the analysis for the northern hemisphere is sufficient to provide forecasts that remain skilful well into the medium range for all years. Two particular problems are also examined: excessive precipitation over tropical oceans and a too strong Brewer-Dobson circulation, both of which are pronounced in later years. Several other aspects of the quality of the re-analyses revealed by monitoring and validation studies are summarized. Expectations that the 'second-generation' ERA-40 re-analysis would provide products that are better than those from the firstgeneration ERA-15 and NCEP/NCAR re-analyses are found to have been met in most cases.

As climate changes, the main changes in precipitation will likely be in the intensity, frequency, and duration of events, but these characteristics are seldom analyzed in observations or models. Why does it rain? If a parcel of air rises, it expands in the lower pressure, cools, and therefore condenses moisture in the parcel, producing cloud and, ultimately, rainfall-or perhaps snowfall. So a key ingredient is certainly the many and varied mechanisms for causing air to rise. These range from orographic uplifting as air flows over mountain ranges, to a host of instabilities in the atmosphere that arise from unequal heating of the atmosphere, to potential vorticity dynamics. The instabilities include those that result directly in vertical mixing, such as convective instabilities, to those associated with the meridional heating disparities that give rise to baroclinic instabilities and the ubiquitous fronts and low and high pressure weather systems. Thus cold air AFFILIATIONS: TRENBERTH, DAI, RASMUSSEN, AND PARSONS-The

A review is given of the meaning of the term "El Nino" and how it has changed in time, so there is no universal single definition. This needs to be recognized for scientific uses, and precision can only be achieved if the particular definition is identified in each use to reduce the possibility of misunderstanding. For quantitative purposes, possible definitions are explored that match the El Ninos identified historically after 1950, and it is suggested that an El Nino can be said to occur if 5-month running means of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Nino 3.4 region (5°N-5°S, 120°-170°W) exceed 0.4°C for 6 months or more. With this definition, El Ninos occur 31% of the time and La Ninas (with an equivalent definition) occur 23% of the time. The histogram of Nino 3.4 SST anomalies reveals a bimodal character. An advantage of such a definition is that it allows the beginning, end, duration, and magnitude of each event to be quantified. Most El Ninos begin in the northern spring or perhaps summer and peak from November to January in sea surface temperatures. 1 • Introduction The term "El Nino" has evolved in its meaning over the years, leading to confusion in its use. Because the phenomenon involving El Nino has become very visible in recent years as a dominant source of interannual climate variability around the world, there is a need to provide a more definitive meaning. However, this works only if it is accepted by everyone, and past attempts have not achieved such a consensus. This article arose from a query to the World Climate Research Programme's CLIVAR (Climate Variability and Predictability) program expressing the view that the definition of El Nino needed to be clarified. A draft response was published in the CLIVAR newsletter Exchanges for commentary, and this article provides the final outcome after taking the comments *The National Center for Atmospheric Research is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

There is a direct influence of global warming on precipitation. Increased heating leads to greater evaporation and thus surface drying, thereby increasing the intensity and duration of drought. However, the water holding capacity of air increases by about 7% per 1°C warming, which leads to increased water vapor in the atmosphere. Hence, storms, whether individual thunderstorms, extratropical rain or snow storms, or tropical cyclones, supplied with increased moisture, produce more intense precipitation events. Such events are observed to be widely occurring, even where total precipitation is decreasing: 'it never rains but it pours!' This increases the risk of flooding. The atmospheric and surface energy budget plays a critical role in the hydrological cycle, and also in the slower rate of change that occurs in total precipitation than total column water vapor. With modest changes in winds, patterns of precipitation do not change much, but result in dry areas becoming drier (generally throughout the subtropics) and wet areas becoming wetter, especially in the mid-to high latitudes: the 'rich get richer and the poor get poorer'. This pattern is simulated by climate models and is projected to continue into the future. Because, with warming, more precipitation occurs as rain instead of snow and snow melts earlier, there is increased runoff and risk of flooding in early spring, but increased risk of drought in summer, especially over continental areas. However, with more precipitation per unit of upward motion in the atmosphere, i.e. 'more bang for the buck', atmospheric circulation weakens, causing monsoons to falter. In the tropics and subtropics, precipitation patterns are dominated by shifts as sea surface temperatures change, with El Niño a good example. The volcanic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 led to an unprecedented drop in land precipitation and runoff, and to widespread drought, as precipitation shifted from land to oceans and evaporation faltered, providing lessons for possible geoengineering. Most models simulate precipitation that occurs prematurely and too often, and with insufficient intensity, resulting in recycling that is too large and a lifetime of moisture in the atmosphere that is too short, which affects runoff and soil moisture.

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