Letter to the Editor: Temperature anomalies in high northerly latitudes and their link with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation

• Published in: Annales Geophysicae
• Main Author: J. S. Bailey
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 1998
• Subjects: Science; Q; Physics; QC1-999; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Pacific; Soi; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00585-998-1523-6; https://doaj.org/article/4db61587a5fe48a7807140b4d15788f5

I report the discovery of a low frequency temperature oscillation in the eastern North Atlantic (NA), which was significantly correlated with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) in the tropical Pacific, but led the latter index by a number of months. This discovery is significant, because it demonstrates a link between the tropical Pacific and the high northerly latitudes which cannot readily be explained in terms of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) feedbacks from the tropics, and opens up the possibility that ENSO and temperature anomalies in northerly climes, may actually have a common origin within, or even external to, the global climate system. Key words. Meteorology and Atmospheric dynamics (ocean-atmosphere interactions) · Oceanography: general (climate and interannual variability) · Oceanography: physical (air-sea interactions)