Abstract
Abstract The role of the North Pacific as a regulator of boreal summer climate over Eurasia and North America is investigated using observational data. Two summertime interannual climate modes associated with sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the North Pacific are identified. The first mode shows an elongated zone of warm (cold) SST anomalies in the central North Pacific along 40°N, with temporal variability significantly correlated with El Nino during the preceding spring, but its subsequent evolution is quite different from El Nino. The second mode exhibits a seesaw SST variation between the northern and southern North Pacific and is independent of El Nino. Both modes are linked to coherent SST anomalies over the North Atlantic, suggesting the presence of an “atmospheric bridge” linking the two extratropical oceans. Using the principal component of the most dominant mode as the North Pacific index (NPI), composite analyses show that the positive (negative) phase of NPI features a warm (cold) ...
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