Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 7 February 1997:
Vol. 275. no. 5301, pp. 805 - 807
DOI: 10.1126/science.275.5301.805
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Interdecadal Climate Fluctuations That Depend on Exchanges Between the Tropics and Extratropics

Daifang Gu * and S. G. H. Philander

The unexpected and prolonged persistence of warm conditions over the tropical Pacific during the early 1990s can be attributed to an interdecadal climate fluctuation that involves changes in the properties of the equatorial thermocline arising as a result of an influx of water with anomalous temperatures from higher latitudes. The influx affects equatorial sea-surface temperatures and hence the tropical and extratropical winds that in turn affect the influx. A simple model demonstrates that these processes can give rise to continual interdecadal oscillations.

Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed at Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Department of Geosciences, Post Office Box CN710, Sayre Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. E-mail: daifang{at}splash.princeton.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Cool La Nina During the Warmth of the Pliocene?.
R. E. M. Rickaby and P. Halloran (2005)
Science 307, 1948-1952
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Rapid Rise of Sea Level 19,000 Years Ago and Its Global Implications.
P. U. Clark, A. M. McCabe, A. C. Mix, and A. J. Weaver (2004)
Science 304, 1141-1144
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Decadal Variation of the Surface Water PCO2 in the Western and Central Equatorial Pacific.
T. Takahashi, S. C. Sutherland, R. A. Feely, and C. E. Cosca (2003)
Science 302, 852-856
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Abrupt Shift in Subsurface Temperatures in the Tropical Pacific Associated with Changes in El Niño.
T. P. Guilderson and D. P. Schrag (1998)
Science 281, 240-243
   Abstract »    Full Text »
The Role of Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions in Tropical Cooling During the Last Glacial Maximum.
A. B. Bush and S. G. H. Philander (1998)
Science 279, 1341-1344
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Variability in the El Nino-Southern Oscillation Through a Glacial-Interglacial Cycle.
A. W. Tudhope, C. P. Chilcott, M. T. McCulloch, E. R. Cook, J. Chappell, R. M. Ellam, D. W. Lea, J. M. Lough, and G. B. Shimmield (2001)
Science 291, 1511-1517
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

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