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Some relationships between sea surface temperature anomalies and surface pressure anomalies
Author(s) -
Haworth C.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49710443910
Subject(s) - anomaly (physics) , sea surface temperature , surface pressure , climatology , tropical atlantic , geology , atmosphere (unit) , latitude , environmental science , surface (topology) , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , geography , meteorology , geodesy , physics , geometry , mathematics , condensed matter physics
Possible relationships between sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical east Atlantic and surface pressure anomalies in the Atlantic‐European sector are investigated. From principal component analysis of the sea surface temperature time series in conjunction with the mean surface pressure anomaly distribution, it is deduced that there is a long‐term change in tropical sea surface temperatures associated with variations in westerly component in higher latitudes. Variations of sea surface temperature are shown to be related, through spatial surface pressure eigenvectors, to the surface pressure distribution in most months of the year. Indications are that the atmosphere initially drives the ocean and that the two media subsequently vary in phase. A method of making quantitative forecasts of the sea surface temperature effect on surface pressure is suggested with special reference to the winter season.