Identification

Title

The average influence of decadal solar forcing on the atmosphere in the South Pacific region

Abstract

Composite mean difference analyses are applied to historical sea level pressure (SLP) and sea surface temperature (SST) data to investigate the spatial dependence of the Pacific climate system response to 11-year solar forcing. Previous work has found that the SST and SLP responses are most clearly detected near the times of sunspot maxima, which occur as much as two years prior to the centers of the broad decadal solar cycle maxima. In January-February, the SLP response at sunspot maximum is nearly the same on either side of the equator, although the amplitude is larger in the winter hemisphere. The solar influence is seen as above normal SLP in the sub-Arctic Pacific, as found previously, and as corresponding positive SLP anomalies in the sub-Antarctic Pacific, as shown here for the first time. These SLP anomalies are associated with previously documented signals at sunspot maxima of greater ocean upwelling and cooling along the Pacific equator, and a poleward extension of the tropical convergence zones in both hemispheres. Previous studies using multiple linear regression methods show the broad decadal solar maxima being associated with the lagged warm response in equatorial Pacific SSTs seen in the composites, which is not inconsistent with the present results. In the South Pacific Ocean, the solar effect is visible in the southern summer in the year before the sunspot number peak. The SST and SLP anomalies in the South Pacific in the solar peaks differ markedly from those in Cold Events (La Ni*#241;a events) of the Southern Oscillation.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7639q95

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2011-06-25T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact