New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Sea level and sea surface temperature variability
at the Chatham Islands, New Zealand
BASIL R. STANTON
New Zealand Oceanographic Institute
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
Research Ltd
P. O. Box 14 901
Wellington, New Zealand
Abstract Sea level and sea surface temperature variability at
the Chatham Islands was investigated using data from 1992 to 1994. The study
was aimed at testing the hypothesis that the Subtropical Convergence moves
north and south of the islands and that the resulting (in phase) variations in
sea level and satellite Sea Surface Temperature could be observed and hence
used to reveal something about the temporal scales of these movements. Although
variability at a variety of scales was observed there was little evidence for
verification of the hypothesis. Sea level adjustment to changes in atmospheric
pressure was found to be less than the conventional inverted barometer
response, showing that local and/or remote wind forcing was contributing to the
observed sea level variability. However no simple local remote forcing
mechanism could be identified in the data. In contrast sea surface temperature
anomalies were correlated with local meridional winds stress.
Keywords sea level; sea surface temperature; Chatham Islands;
Subtropical Convergence
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1997, Vol. 31:
525-536
0028-8330/97/3104-0525 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1997
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (699K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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