TITLE:
North Pacific Month to Month SST Changes
AUTHORS:
Kern E. Kenyon
KEYWORDS:
North Pacific SST, Longitudinal Maximum, Month to Month Changes
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Science,
Vol.6 No.14,
September
24,
2014
ABSTRACT: Month to month changes in the SST of the North Pacific, on the eastern side at mid-latitudes, are studied based on 30 years of ship-injection temperatures. Along both 40 and 35 N the SST maximum shifts west in summer, but it starts west at 35 N two months sooner than at 40 N. In July the maximum at 40 N is at the same location as the maximum at 35 N was in June: 155 W. Since the longitudinal SST maximum in the eastern North Pacific has previously been identified as the signature of a very wide, warm and sluggish current permanently flowing northeast off California, the month to month SST changes are used to estimate its mean speed: 10 - 20 cm/sec. Also the month to month SST changes indicate that in summer a new body of warm water goes north, in a pulse- like movement, to the west of the existing wide warm current. This is consistent with the need of the western equatorial ocean to export more heat northward out of the tropics in summer due to the increased absorption of solar radiation in the surface layer in that season.