NAMIAS: SPACE SCALES OF SEA-SURFACE TEMPERATURE PATTERNS 



Table 1. — Correlation relating mean SST over North 

 Pacific (north of lat 20 °N) and percent of positive signs 

 of anomalies at 5° squares (based on 21 years of data), 

 and standard deviations of these quantities. 



be found in all seasons with only small differ- 

 ences (see Table 1). However, the variability 

 in percent of similar signs and mean SST seems 

 to be seasonally dependent with summer and fall 

 having greater variability than winter and 

 spring, as shown by the standard deviations of 

 SST and percent of positive signs listed in Table 

 1. In the warm season small changes in cloud 

 cover and wind can produce large changes in 

 SST since only a thin wind-mixed layer is af- 

 fected. These changes often extend over vast 

 areas because of variations in the great Pacific 

 High and peripheral storm tracks. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



My thanks go to Scripps' staff members Robert 

 M. Born for programming assistance, Madge 



Sullivan and Lorayne D. Buck for computational 

 and typing assistance, and Fred Crowe and Keiko 

 Akutagawa for the drafting of the figures. 



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