Is low frequency variability over the North Pacific/North America region
sensitive to month-to-month changes in the base state, or are
these changes sufficiently minor that we can usefully consider
anomalies as departures from seasonal means?
Or, are there certain times of the year and/or geographical locations
for which this annual cycle is particularly important?
Examining Rossby wave propagation in the context of a barotropic model, we find that:
As spring
progresses, North American height anomalies are increasingly
sensitive to smaller scale forcing, particularly in the far west
Pacific.
Data
analysis and modeling studies during spring and fall may be
complicated by the seasonal change of the geographical scale of
forced waves.
Change of
the base state due to the annual cycle may be important for
any complete theory of low-frequency variability, possibly
even during winter.
For a preprint, click
here.
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