Using satellite data, we detected a wind wake trailing westward behind the Hawaiian Islands for 3000 kilometers, a length many times greater than observed anywhere else on Earth. This wind wake drives an eastward ocean current that draws warm water from the Asian coast 8000 kilometers away, leaving marked changes in surface and subsurface ocean temperature. Standing in the path of the steady tr...

The formation of the South China Sea (SCS) deep basin warm-core and cool-core eddies was studied numerically using the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) with 20 km horizontal resolution and 23 sigma levels conforming to a realistic bottom topography. Numerical integration was divided into pre-experimental and experimental stages. During the preexperimental stage, we integrated the POM model for three...

The seasonal and interannual predictability of ENSO variability in a version of the Zebiak–Cane coupled model is examined in a perturbation experiment. Instead of assuming that the model is “perfect,” it is assumed that a set of optimal initial conditions exists for the model. These states, obtained through a nonlinear minimization of the misfit between model trajectories and the observations, ...

The large-scale features favoring tropical cyclogenesis and development are low vertical wind shear, below normal sea-level pressure and abnormally warm ocean temperatures. High wind shear is thought to inhibit development by preventing cumulonimbus condensation from collecting into a distinct heat source at the core of a disturbance. Also, it shears the initially delicate pattern of circulatio...

It is shown that landscape variability decreases the temperature in the surface layer when, through mesoscale flow, cool air intrudes over warm patches, lifting warm air and weakening the static stability of the upper part of the planetary boundary layer. This mechanism generates regions of upward vertical motion and a sizable amount of available potential energy and can make the environment of...

Typical spring and summer conditions offshore of California consist of strong northerly low-level wind contained within the cool, well-mixedmarine boundary layer (MBL) that is separated from the warm and dry free troposphere by a sharp temperature inversion. This system is often represented by two layers constrained by a lateral boundary. Aircraft measurements near Point Conception, California,...