Posted by Art Miller on September 19, 200 at 12:55:20:
Bo Qiu's results presented here are a very exciting
demonstration of the importance of geostrophic advection
on the heat budget of the SST field in the Kuroshio/Oyashio
Extension (KOE).....This region of the ocean is vital
to the proposed coupled ocean-atmosphere feedbacks of
the Latif-Barnett-type decadal mode of North Pacific
variability.....The coupled mode requires three main
links, one of which is strongly supported by Bo's results.
The first link is between the Aleutian Low wind stress
field and the adjustment of the North Pacific basin-wide
thermocline (including currents in the western
boundary currents)....The second is the link between the
thermocline, and concomitant geostrophic current,
variations and the SST field in the KOE......
The third is the link between the KOE SST and the
atmospheric response downstream in the
Aleutian Low region.....Bo's results show
that anomalous geostrophic currents directly affect the
SST heat budget in the KOE on multi-year time scales.....
This is the first clear evidence for this in observations.....
Hence, these results form a crucial part of the proposed
coupled feedback loop which may help to explain and predict
decadal variability in the North Pacific Ocean.