Seasonal sea surface temperatures of the North Pacific
- 1 4632 North Lane, Del Mar, USA
Abstract
Mean seasonal surface temperatures of the North Pacific are illustrated in three maps. Twenty nine years of ship-injection temperatures are used for the whole North Pacific (north of 20?N). Map number two shows geographical regions of the month of highest sea surface temperature. There are two broad bands in the central and eastern basin, trending northeast/southwest, such that the September band lies east of the August band along a given latitude line. Map three depicts regions of the lowest monthly mean temperatures. March is the most common month, but in the middle of the ocean is a band of Februarys trending northeast/southwest. These features on maps two and three are interpreted in terms of the newly proposed wide warm surface current and its seasonal variations, mainly in horizontal position, flowing northeastward off California. It has not been found possible to compare maps two and three with the results from any earlier work. Map one shows the mean seasonal range of surface temperature, which has a character similar to maps going all the way back to the late 1800s, but is based on considerably more data.
- Stommel, H. (1960) The gulf stream. University of California Press, Berkeley.
- Kenyon, K.E. (1975) Influence of longitudinal variations in wind stress curl on the steady ocean circulation. Jour nal of Physical Oceanography, 5, 334-346. doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1975005 2.0.CO;2
- Kenyon, K.E. (1977) A large-scale longitudinal variation in surface temperature in the North Pacific. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 7, 256-263. doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1977)007 2.0.CO;2
- Kenyon, K.E. (1981) A shallow northeastward current in the North Pacific. Journal of Geophysical Research, 86, 6529-6536. doi:10.1029/JC086iC07p06529
- Kenyon, K.E. (1980) North Pacific sea surface temperature observations: A History, in oceanography the past. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 267-279. doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-8090-0_25
- Murray, J. (1898) On the annual range of temperature of the surface waters of the ocean, and its relation to other oceanographic phenomena. The Geographical Journal, 12, 113-137. doi:10.2307/1774459
- US Hydrographic Office (1944), World atlas of sea sur face temperature. 2nd Edition, H. O. No. 225, Washing ton, D.C.
- La Violette, P.E. and Seim, S.E. (1969) Monthly charts of mean, minimum, and maximum sea surface temperature of the North Pacific Ocean. Naval Oceanographic Office, Washington, D.C.
- Robinson, M.K. and Bauer, R.A. (1971) Atlas of monthly mean sea surface and subsurface temperature and depth of the top of the thermocline North Pacific Ocean. Fleet Numerical Weather Central, Monterey.
- Kenyon, K.E. (2012) The wide warm current of the North Pacific. Lambert Academic Publishing, Saarbrucken.
- Neumann, G. and Pierson, W.J. (1966) Principles of phy sical oceanography. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 230 233.
- Sandstrom, J.W. (1908) Dynamische versuche mit meerwasser. Ann. d. Hydr. u. Marit. Meterol., 36, 6.
- Kenyon, K.E. (1983) Sections along 35°N in the Pacific. Deep-Sea Research, 30, 349-369. doi:10.1016/0198-0149(83)90071-7
- Wyrtki, K. (1965) The annual and semiannual variation of sea surface temperature in the North Pacific Ocean. Limnology and Oceanography, 10, 307.