Southern Annular Mode
SAM
The fluctuation of a pattern like the Northern Annular Mode, but in the Southern Hemisphere. See SAM Index, Box 3.4.
Definition courtesy of IPCC AR4.
All IPCC definitions taken from Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Annex I, Glossary, pp. 941-954. Cambridge University Press.