Subduction of Decadal North Pacific Temperature Anomalies: Observations and Dynamics

Observations of oceanic temperature in the upper 400 m reveal decadal signals that propagate in the thermocline along lines of constant potential vorticity from the ventilation region in the central North Pacific to approximately 188N in the western Pacific. The propagation path and speed are well described by the geostrophic mean circulation and by a model of the ventilated thermocline. The approximate southward speed of the thermal signal of 7 mm s21 yields a transit time of approximately eight years. The thermal anomalies appear to be forced by perturbations of the mixed layer heat budget in the subduction region of the central North Pacific east of the date line. A warm pulse was generated in the central North Pacific by a series of mild winters from 1973 to 1976 and reached 188N around 1982. After 1978 a succession of colder winters initiated a cold anomaly in the central North Pacific that propagated along a similar path and with a similar speed as the warm anomaly, then arrived in the western tropical Pacific at 188N around 1991. Tropical Ekman pumping, rather than further propagation of the midlatitude signal, caused the subsequent spread into the equatorial western Pacific and an increase in amplitude. Historical data show that anomalous sea surface temperature in the equatorial central Pacific is correlated with tropical Ekman pumping while the correlation with thermal anomalies in the North Pacific eight years earlier is not significant. These results indicate no significant coupling in the Pacific of Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes and the equatorial region via advection of thermal anomalies along the oceanic thermocline.