Spectral Analysis of the Long-Term Oceanographic Time Series at Ocean Weather Station "P"

• Published in: Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
• Main Authors: Ross, C. K., Needler, G. T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1976
• Subjects: General Medicine; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f76-269; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f76-269

Oceanographic observations taken at Ocean Station "P" (50°N, 145°W) provide one of the few long oceanographic time series. The intermittent nature of the sampling program at Station "P," however, presents problems for a standard time-series analysis. In this paper the seriousness of this aspect of the data is discussed and spectral estimates are obtained for the potential temperature, potential density anomaly, and dynamic height anomaly at several depths. We found that the lowest frequency estimates of dynamic height anomaly are approximately an order of magnitude less than those obtained from a similar station in the North Atlantic. This is consistent with a more rapid falloff of energy with depth at Station "P".