Interrelations Between Temperature Variations in Oceanic Depths and the Global Atmospheric Oscillation

Abstract

Using data on the distribution of temperatures in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, large-scale structures of spatial and temporal variations of these temperatures are investigated. A structure is found which is almost identical to the spatial and temporal sea surface temperature (SST) structure that is characteristic of the recently found Global Atmospheric Oscillation. Variations in water temperature in a near-equatorial zone of the Pacific Ocean at depths up to about 150 m behave themselves in the same way as variations in sea surface height and SST. At even greater depths, variations in water temperature reveal a “striped” structure, which is, however, overall similar to that of SST variations. Variations of water temperature at depths in all three oceans spread from east to west along the equator with a period of 14 months. This makes it possible to think that the dynamics of these temperatures are controlled by the so-called Pole tides. The surface North Pacific Pole Tide was found previously responsible for excitation of El Nino. The deep Pole tides in the Southern Atlantic and Southern Indian Ocean appear to be triggers of the Atlantic El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). Thus, IOD manifests itself at the depth of the thermocline more clearly than on the surface of the Indian Ocean. The out-of-phase behavior of El Nino and IOD is explained by the 180° difference in the longitudes of these phenomena.