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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Mid-October 2010 SST Anomaly Update

I’ve moved to WordPress.  This post can now be found at Mid-October 2010 SST Anomaly Update
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NOTE: The weekly OI.v2 SST data is available in two periods through the NOAA NOMADS website, from November 1981 to 1989, and from 1990 to present. The mid-month posts now include the full term of the NINO3.4 and Global SST anomalies from 1990 to present and a shorter-term view from 2004 to present to make the recent wiggles easier to see.

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NINO3.4

NINO3.4 SST anomalies for the week centered on October 20, 2010 show that central equatorial Pacific SST anomalies have risen slightly in the past two weeks after their significant drop. They’re at -1.5 deg C.
http://i53.tinypic.com/21b8a5u.jpg
NINO3.4 SST Anomalies
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http://i52.tinypic.com/2u7m4yd.jpg
NINO3.4 SST Anomalies - Short-Term

GLOBAL

Weekly Global SST anomalies have taken a minor step up in the past few weeks, after the major decline. In effect, this returned them to the value they were at four weeks ago.
http://i56.tinypic.com/rk6iyg.jpg
Global SST Anomalies
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http://i53.tinypic.com/11ghtzb.jpg
Global SST Anomalies - Short-Term

COMPARISON TO PAST LA NIÑA EVENTS AND TRANSITIONS

The first graph that follows illustrates how the present NINO3.4 SST anomalies stack up against prior La Niña events. I’ve also provided a comparison of the declines in global SST anomalies in response to the transitions from El Niño to La Niña, using the same years. Note that the first SST anomaly reading for each year has been zeroed, and that all global SST anomalies have been shifted accordingly. The decline in 2010 Global SST anomalies is well within the range of past events.
http://i52.tinypic.com/ouqjwp.jpg
Comparison Of La Niña Evolution – 2010 Versus 1988, 1998, and 2007
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http://i52.tinypic.com/68r2ol.jpg
Comparison Of Global SST Anomalies During La Niña Evolution – 2010 Versus 1988, 1998, and 2007

SOURCE

OI.v2 SST anomaly data is available through the NOAA NOMADS system:
http://nomad3.ncep.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/pdisp_sst.sh?lite

4 comments:

jelsliger said...

I am a UBC student studying the same data set as yourself. I was wondering if you could give any insight into the difference between the yearly the pacific and atlantic ocean mean sea levels. It appears as though the atlantic has a higher sea level than the pacific one year and then a lower one the next this carries on from 1992 to 2004. At first I thought it was ocean circulations but the only one which could affect both oceans would be the thermohaline. The timescale for the thermohaline is way to long for this to be correct. any ideas on the noticeable fluctuations between the two oceans?

Bob Tisdale said...

jelsliger: Same answer as on the Sea Level thread:

The North Atlantic has the highest trend in sea level, SST, OHC, etc., since 1975 for a number of reasons. The North Atlantic warms in response to El Nino events and cools in response to La Nina events, obviously, and the ENSO-induced SST variations (positive and negative) linger in the North Atlantic. In effect, the North Atlantic integrates ENSO. And since the frequency and magnitude of El Nino events have exceeded La Nina events since the mid-1970s, the North Atlantic SST anomalies rise.

The South Atlantic is the only ocean basin where heat travels from the pole to the equator, traveling toward the North Atlantic. This contributes to it.

DeNihilist said...

Bob, do you know of this chaps work? It is beyond me, but I thought you may be interested.

http://college.usc.edu/labs/jeg/research/JEG_AGU09.pdf.pdf

Bob Tisdale said...

DeNihilist: Thanks. I hadn't seen that NINO3 reconstruction. One of the conclusions was there was nothing outstanding about the 20th Century.

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