Interdecadal Pacific oscillation
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO) is an oceanographic/meteorological phenomenon similar to the
Pacific decadal oscillation The Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) is a robust, recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability centered over the mid-latitude Pacific basin. The PDO is detected as warm or cool surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, north of 20°N. O ...
(PDO), but occurring in a wider area of the Pacific. While the PDO occurs in mid-latitudes of the Pacific Ocean in the northern hemisphere, the IPO stretches from the southern hemisphere into the northern hemisphere. The period of oscillation is roughly 15–30 years. Positive phases of the IPO are characterized by a warmer than average tropical Pacific and cooler than average northern Pacific. Negative phases are characterized by an inversion of this pattern, with cool tropics and warm northern regions. The IPO had positive phases (southeastern tropical Pacific warm) from 1922 to 1946 and 1978 to 1998, and a negative phase between 1947 and 1976.


References

Physical oceanography Regional climate effects Pacific Ocean Climate oscillations {{meteorology-stub