In a previous study, the effect of the March 1997 Westerly Wind Event (WWE) on the evolution of the tropical Pacific Ocean was studied using an ocean general circulation model (GCM). The response was characterized by (i) a cooling of the far western Pacific (;0.88C), (ii) a rapid eastward displacement of the warm pool (2000 km in a month), and (iii) a weak warming of the central eastern Pacific...

In this study, we perform experiments with a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (CGCM) to examine ENSO’s influence on the interannual sea-surface temperature (SST) variability of the tropical Indian Ocean. The control experiment includes both the Indian and Pacific Oceans in the ocean model component of the CGCM (the Indo-Pacific Run). The anomaly experiment excludes ENSO’s infl...

Japan Marine Science and Technology Center, Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan 2International Pacific Research Center and Department of Meteorology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, U.S.A. Frontier Observational Research System for Global Change, Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan 4International Pacific Research Center, Scho...

6 [1] Decadal changes of persistence barriers in various indices of sea surface temperature 7 (SST) and ocean heat content (OHC) are examined in this study using observations and 8 ocean data assimilation products for the period 1958–2001. It is found that the SST 9 indices in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific exhibit very different decadal 10 barrier variability. The variability is la...

Ocean heat uptake is observed to penetrate deep into the Atlantic and Southern Oceans during the recent hiatus of global warming. Here we show that the deep heat penetration in these two basins is not unique to the hiatus but is characteristic of anthropogenic warming and merely reflects the depth of the mean meridional overturning circulation in the basin. We find, however, that heat redistrib...

[1] During the last glacial period, eustatic lowering of sea level exposed large areas of continental shelves that are presently submerged. By a series of direct numerical simulations we investigate the sensitivity of the atmosphere-ocean system to exposure of the extensive Sunda shelf in the western tropical Pacific. We demonstrate that this specific forcing factor triggers increased convectio...

The deep ocean is most likely the primary source of the radiocarbon-depleted CO2 released to the atmosphere during the last deglaciation. While there are well-documented millennial scale Δ14C changes during the most recent deglaciation, most marine records lack the resolution needed to identify more rapid ventilation events. Furthermore, potential age model problems with marine Δ14C records may...

Two distinct low-frequency fluctuations are suggested from a joint frequency domain analysis of the Pacific Ocean (30°S-60°N) sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP). The lowest frequency signal reveals a spatially coherent interdecadal evolution. In-phase SST and SLP anomalies are found along the subarctic frontal zone (SAFZ). It is symmetric about the equator, with tropical...

The ATOC Project has aquired trans-Pacific acoustic data from two acoustic sources: one located on Pioneer Seamount off the coast of California, the other located north of Kauai, Hawaii. Transmissions from these sources are detected by U.S. Navy SOSUS arrays located throughout the North Pacific. The time series of acoustic travel times from the Pioneer Seamount and Kauai transmissions are about...

Dust plays a critical role in Earth's climate system and serves as a natural source of iron and other micronutrients to remote regions of the ocean. We have generated records of dust deposition over the past 500,000 years at three sites spanning the breadth of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Equatorial Pacific dust fluxes are highly correlated with global ice volume and with dust fluxes to Antarc...