Potential global climatic impacts of the North Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Global climatic impacts of the North Pacific Ocean are studied using both observations and a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. It is found that the coupled ocean-atmosphere interaction over the western North Pacific may modulate global climate in the tropical Indian Ocean, the western subtropical south Pacific, and the tropical and North Atlantic through potential atmospheric teleconnections of the Asian winter monsoon and the Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation (AO/NAO). The study suggests that the North Pacific Ocean may be an important regulator of global decadal climate variability. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.