Spectrum of sea level at Lord Howe Island in relation to circulation

Abstract

The spectrum of sea level at Lord Howe Island has a broad peak at 0.006 cycle/day (period 170 days), most likely due to movement of the strong circulation pattern of the East Australian Current system relative to the island. At higher frequencies, 0.02–0.05 cpd, the spectrums at Lord Howe Island and also at two stations on the east Australian coast (Sydney and Coff's Harbour) are comparable and are an order of magnitude larger than the spectrums at Honolulu and Canton Island. It is suggested that the high values in this frequency range at the Australian stations, both coastal and island, may be due to a different feature of the circulation.