Influence of North Pacific winter blocking on atmospheric and oceanic changes

In this study, EOF and composite analyses are carried out for various atmospheric and oceanic variables in winter over the North Pacific in order to see the possibility of a blocking effect on the ocean over the region during Northern Hemisphere winter (1960-2009). From the analyses, we were able to find that the second mode is closely related to the boreal winter North Pacific blocking and shows a similar pattern to the composite anomaly fields of the high and low blocking occurrence winters, based on the blocking classification of Barriopedro et al. [2006]. It is found that the composite anomaly fields of the boreal winter high and low blockings for different oceanic and atmospheric variables have exactly the opposite sign to each other. It implies that blocking and its influence on ocean and atmosphere are quite systematic in the North Pacific and that consistent linkage between oceanic and atmospheric variables is evident [You and Ahn, 2012].

References

You-Jae-Eun, and J. B. Ahn (2012), The Anomalous Structures of Atmospheric and Oceanic Variables Associated with the Frequency of North Pacific winter blocking. J. Geophysical Res, (submitted).

Barriopedro, D., R. Garcia-Herrera, A. R. Lupo, and E. Hernandez (2006), A climatology of Northern Hemisphere blocking, J. Climate, 19, 1042–1063