An Extension of Empirical Orthogonal Functions for the Analysis of Time-Dependent 2D Scalar Field Ensembles

To assess the reliability of weather forecasts and climate simulations, common practice is to generate large ensembles of numerical simulations. Analyzing such data is challenging and requires pattern and feature detection. For single time-dependent scalar fields, empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) are a proven means to identify the main variation. In this paper, we present an extension of that concept to time-dependent ensemble data. We applied our methods to two ensemble data sets from climate research in order to investigate the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and East Atlantic (EA) pattern.