New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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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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