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Science 6 April 1973:
Vol. 180. no. 4081, pp. 66 - 68
DOI: 10.1126/science.180.4081.66
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Articles

Teleconnections in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean

Klaus Wyrtki 1

1 Department of Oceanography, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96822

Geostrophic water transport by the equatorial countercurrent is compared with the observed sea level difference between two pairs of islands situlated north and south of the current. The high correlation between the transport and the sea level difference makes it possible to construct a time series for the countercurrent transport over a 21-year period. The countercurrent carries warm water into the eastern tropical Pacific, and fluctuations in its strength give rise to temperature anomalies off Central America. Periods of exceptionally high transport by the countercurrent in the western Pacific coincide with the occurrence of El Niño several thousand kilometers downstream and demonstrate the existence of teleconnections between events in the Pacific Ocean.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
The Southern Oscillation and El Nino.
J. G. Lockwood (1984)
Progress in Physical Geography 8, 102-110
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The Hawaii to Tahiti Shuttle Experiment.
K. Wyrtki, E. Firing, D. Halpern, R. Knox, G. J. McNally, W. C. Patzert, E. D. Stroup, B. A. Taft, and R. Williams (1981)
Science 211, 22-28
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Predicting and Observing El Nino.
K. Wyrtki, K. Wyrtki, E. Stroup, W. Patzert, R. Williams, and W. Quinn (1976)
Science 191, 343-346
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Response of the Equatorial Countercurrent to the Subtropical Atmosphere.
J. Namias and J. Namias (1973)
Science 181, 1244-1245
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)