Ocean-Air Teleconnections

Teleconnections, or “seesaw” correlations of energyTeleconnectionArctic Oscillationand energy, matterMatter, or momentum between distant places, have regional to hemispheric-scale atmosphereAtmosphere-ocean impactsEl Niñoimpacts and interactions. The El Niño-Southern OscillationEl NiñoSouthern Oscillation (ENSO)ENSO teleconnectionTeleconnectionArctic OscillationEl Niño-Southern Oscillation is a periodicTeleconnectionArctic OscillationSouthern Oscillation anomalous warming/cooling of tropical equatorial Pacific waters associated with drastic environmental consequences globallyTemperatureand Pacific Decadal Oscillation. TheTeleconnectionArctic OscillationPacific Decadal Oscillation Pacific Decadal Oscillationand Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is similar to ENSOENSO but with extreme modes that dominate for 20-to-30-year periods rather than six to 18 months as in ENSO. In theEl Niñoand Indian Ocean Dipole Indian Ocean Dipoleand Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), sea surface temperatureSea surface temperatureand El Niño anomaliesTemperatureand Indian Ocean Dipole seesaw between the westernTemperaturesea surface and eastern Indian Ocean. The Pacific-North American (PNA) pattern has simultaneous amplified (meridional)Meridional atmospheric ridging over northwestern North America and troughing in southeastern North America vs. de-amplified (zonal) flow across these areas. ThePositive phase (North Atlantic Oscillation) North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a pressure/geopotential heightGeopotential height seesaw betweenTeleconnectionArctic OscillationNorth Atlantic Oscillation the Bermuda-Azores HighAzores High and the Icelandic LowAtlantic OceanBermuda-Azores HighIcelandic Low, which are simultaneously anomalously strong or weak, causing either zonalZonal or meridionalMeridional winds, respectively, across the North Atlantic. The ArcticEnergyin Arctic Oscillation (AO), or Northern Annular ModeTeleconnectionArctic OscillationNorthern Annular Mode, is a hemispheric-scale expression of the NAO, with a seesaw in simultaneous strength of the North Polar High and Northern Hemisphere, mid-latitude, mid-level geopotential heights. These and other patterns contribute to climate variability far beyond the seesaw’s location.