Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Northeast Pacific decadal oscillation, water temperature, predator distribution, large-scale population patchiness, persistent widespread contamination... 

Climate variation in the equatorial and North Pacific A number of large-scale climatic cycles and their impacts have been recognized and thoroughly studied in the 1990s. Two of the climatic cycles that impact the central and northern Pacific are the ENSO and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). 

There have been two interruptions in the rise of global average temperature since 1956 (Fig. 3.5), and of course, the earth s climate is influenced by more than just CO2. Other trace gases and black carbon warm the climate, and aerosols cool it. On a larger scale, the astronomical theory of orbital influences was revived and climate variation attributed to such factors as ENSO, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and solar activities (or the lack thereof) are now being widely discussed. Still, more than 50 years later, scientists agree that the uncontrolled experiment pointed out by Plass in 1956 has been verified, and a warmer future caused by the radiative effects of CO2 is in store (Fleming 2010). 

There is a comparable set of climate indices for the North Atlantic that potentially exert controls on the intensities of storms, both extratropical storms and hurricanes, although those relationships are not as firmly established as in the Pacific and there is some debate as to their analyses and interpretations. Comparable to the NPI for the North Pacific, the atmospheric pressure difference between the Iceland Low and Azores High defines the North Atlantic Index (NAI), with research having shown that an increase in this index produces higher intensity storms and the heights of the waves they generate. The Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) is somewhat analogous to the PDO in the Pacific, based in practical terms... 

Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Several of the longer Pacific (5 0 coral records reveal that the frequency of ENSO has changed on decadal timescales over the past few centuries. Over the last 300 years, the dominant mode of ENSO recorded by a Galapagos coral has been at 4.6 years. However, during that time period there have been shifts in that mode from... 

Linsley BK, Ren L, Dunbar RB, and Howe SS (2000) El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and decadal-scale climate variability at 10°N in the eastern Pacific from 1893 to 1994 a coral-based reconstruction from Clipperton Atoll. Paleoceanography 15 322-335. http // pangea. Stanford. edu/Oceans/ARTS/arts report/arts report home, html... 

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