Abstract
The complex empirical orthogonal function is employed to analyse the monthly sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) in the Tropical West Pacific (TWP) for the period from 1951 to 1986. The results show that the SSTA in the area appear in three patterns: a quasi-stationary mode, a latitudinally propagating mode and a longitudinally propagating mode. The three modes contribute almost equally to the total variance of SST. Digital filtering, time-lag correlation, etc., are applied to analyse the quasi-period low frequency oscillations of the modes and their relations to the southern oscillation (SO) and the West Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH).
The SSTA in the TWP is different from that in an ocean current area and plays a special role in the large scale air-sea interaction. Aside from being related to the SSTA in the Equatorial East Pacific, the SSTA in the TWP, on the one hand, respond to the oscillation of the global sea level pressure and influence the Subtropical High, and on the other hand receive feedback from the Subtropical High.
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This paper was published in Chinese inOceanologia et Limnologia Sinica 21 (2): 97–104, 1990.
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Faxiu, Z., Shenyu, Y. The regional feature of the sea surface temperature anomalies in the Tropical West Pacific. Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 9, 146–152 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02850673
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02850673