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Rainfall along the east coast of southern Africa, the southern oscillation, and the latitude of the subtropical high pressure belt
Author(s) -
Dyer T. G. J.
Publication year - 1979
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.49710544408
Subject(s) - subtropics , climatology , latitude , low latitude , geology , southern oscillation , index (typography) , geography , oscillation (cell signaling) , subtropical ridge , el niño southern oscillation , meteorology , precipitation , geodesy , genetics , fishery , world wide web , computer science , biology
Eighteen rainfall series within a latitude belt 28°08′S to 30°25′S are inspected for relationships with Pittock's L index for the latitude of the subtropical high pressure belt (eastern Australia), and the southern oscillation index. Principal components analysis is used to reduce the dimensions of each of the three data sets, and the components for the pressure systems are used as independent variables in a step‐wise regression analysis; rainfall components are taken as the dependent variables. Useful relationships exist between rainfall and Pittock's L , but there is no evidence to suggest that the same situation applies for the southern oscillation index. The results agree with those recently obtained for Mauritius by M. D. Dennett.