The Connection between the Boreal Spring Southern Oscillation Persistence Barrier and Biennial Variability

Previous work has shown that the widely used Tahiti minus Darwin Southern Oscillation index has a sharp decrease in persistence in the boreal spring. It is suggested that this persistence barrier is due to a purely biennial oscillationB(t) embedded in the Southern Oscillation index. The analysis sho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of climate Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 610 - 620
Main Authors Clarke, Allan J., Van Gorder, Stephen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston, MA American Meteorological Society 01.02.1999
Subjects
Atmospheric pressure
Climate
Correlation coefficients
Earth, ocean, space
El Nino
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Extrema
Mathematical minima
Meteorology
Meteors
Monsoons
Oceans
Other topics in atmospheric geophysics
Southern Oscillation
Time series
Persistence
Biennial variation
Southern oscillation
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Summary:Previous work has shown that the widely used Tahiti minus Darwin Southern Oscillation index has a sharp decrease in persistence in the boreal spring. It is suggested that this persistence barrier is due to a purely biennial oscillationB(t) embedded in the Southern Oscillation index. The analysis shows that the Southern Oscillation indexS(t) may be writtenS(t) ≈B(t)L(t) +M(t), whereB(t) has a zero in May andL(t) andM(t) vary interannually and decadally. SinceLis time dependent with negligible meanS(t) does not have a biennial peak even thoughB(t) is present. The persistence barrier strengthens and weakens decadally asLandMvary decadally. For example, during 1975–84BLdominatesMand the persistence barrier is strong while for the decade 1940–49BLis negligible and the persistence barrier disappears.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0894-8755
1520-0442
DOI:10.1175/1520-0442(1999)012<0610:TCBTBS>2.0.CO;2