7th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography

Monday, 24 March 2003: 10:30 AM
Remote features linked to the South Pacific subtropical high
Richard Grotjahn, Univ. of California, Davis, CA
Poster PDF (594.7 kB)
This study follows up work reported on by the author in Santiago Chile at the last ICSHMO meeting. At that meeting calculations using monthly-mean NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and other data showed links between the subtropical high in the eastern South Pacific (hereafter, the ‘Chilean’ high) and remote areas of precipitation and OLR anomalies. Interactions with ICZ, far western equatorial Pacific, and midlatitude regions proved significant. The work suggested that a prominent theory at that time seemed unlikely to be correct. The results were consistent with three other mechanisms proposed to maintain and shape the ‘Chilean’ high.

Since that time the authors of that seemingly unsupported theory have independently modified their conceptual model to be more consistent with results this author presented at the last ICSHMO meeting.

Subsequent work using observed daily mean fields and other variables besides precipitation and OLR will be presented at the 7th ICSHMO. Unlike the monthly mean data shown before, these daily mean fields allow cause and effect to be established between the several different types of remote events that subsequently influence the ‘Chilean’ high. Time spectra of the Chilean high properties will be discussed. Then filtered time series of those Chilean high properties are regressed against circulation and precipitation variables at various lags in time. The results are plotted where significant.

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