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Science 20 November 1981:
Vol. 214. no. 4523, pp. 869 - 876
DOI: 10.1126/science.214.4523.869
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Articles

Large-Scale Air-Sea Interactions and Short-Period Climatic Fluctuatioins

Jerome Namias 1 and Daniel R. Cayan 2

1 Research meteorologist with the Climate Research Group, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California 92093
2 Staff research associate with the Climate Research Group, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California 92093

Research during the last 15 years has shown that there is order in large-scale air-sea interactions, so that space scales of abnormalities of the lower atmosphere's circulation and the upper oceanic thermal structure are comparable. Because of this air-sea coupling, each oceanic or atmospheric pattern can be reasonably well specified by the other. Patterns of oceanic thermal anomalies are about an order of magnitude more persistent than those of atmospheric circulations, and empirical studies have had some success in using sea surface temperature patterns in long-range weather prediction. In addition to empirical studies, efforts continue in the development of numerical-dynamical models in order to understand the complex linkages of the large-scale air-sea system.


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