A Climatological Study of the Forcing of the North Pacific Ocean by Synoptic Storm Activity.
Abstract
Synoptic storm activity over the North Pacific Ocean is investigated by using a special series of six-hourly surface wind analyses prepared by Fleet Numerical Oceanographic Center (FNOC) covering the period 1969-1978. Temporal variance of the surface wind components at each grid point is 'high pass' filtered, thereby removing all temporal variability except that having time scales less than ten days. Both the total and the filtered wind components were used to calculate the cube of the friction velocity and the wind stress curl. Monthly 'climatologies' are calculated by computing ten-year averages of monthly mean cube of the friction velocity and wind stress curl from total and filtered wind components for each month of the year. It was found that while climatological maps of cube of the friction velocity calculated from filtered data show spatially coherent patterns that are clearly associated wtih monthly storm tracks, similar maps of wind stress curl do not show such coherent patterns. Maps of anomalous storm activity, as given by the difference between the monthly value and the climatological value for that month, are also prepared and qualitatively compared to observations of large scale sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1980
- Accession Number
- ADA086841
Entities
People
- Michael Scott Risch
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School