Abstract
Short-term climatic anomalies in the surface dynamic height (O/400 db) structure of the western North Pacific from 1964-1974 are investigated on a seasonal basis for propagational character. From the equator to 32.5N, negative dynamic height anomalies occurred in 1965, 1969 and 1972, approximately every three years, associated with E1 Nino events in the eastern tropical Pacific (Wyrtki, 1977). The decorrelation time scale of these short-term climatic anomalies was independent of latitude (i.e., 6-9 months), but the decorrelation longitude scale decreased poleward; i.e., from 10° longitude at 7.5N to 5° longitude at 32.5N. Time/longitude correlation studies find these anomalies to have propagated westward at the speed of baroclinic long (Rossby) waves; i.e., 14 ± 4 cm/sec to the west at 7.5N and 1.5 ± .5 cm/sec to the west at 32.5N, with intermediate speeds in between.
Recommended Citation
White, Warren B.. 1983. "Westward propagation of short-term climatic anomalies in the western North Pacific Ocean from 1964-1974." Journal of Marine Research 41, (1). https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/journal_of_marine_research/1675