On the Development of Blocking Ridge Activity Over the Central North Pacific

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Abstract
Monthly mean atmospheric data taken over the North Pacific during the period 1950–70 are used to investigate blocking ridge activity over the central ocean. The blocking ridge is observed to be a finite-amplitude, quasi-stationary long wave, most often centered over the North Pacific at 170W, superimposed upon the quasi-zonal mid-latitude westerlies. The dominant length scale is 7000 km, the same dimensions as the width of the mid-latitude ocean. The growth time scale is 1–2 weeks, with the duration of blocking activity rarely exceeding 2 months in any given year. The blocking activity is confined almost exclusively to the autumn/winter months, where block development is closely coupled with the sensible heat transfer from the underlying ocean (anomalously small beat transfer under the ridge and anomalously large heat transfer under the associated troughs). Year-to-year variability in blocking ridge activity is found to have a dominant time scale of approximately 5 years from 1950–70 and to be in... Abstract Monthly mean atmospheric data taken over the North Pacific during the period 1950–70 are used to investigate blocking ridge activity over the central ocean. The blocking ridge is observed to be a finite-amplitude, quasi-stationary long wave, most often centered over the North Pacific at 170W, superimposed upon the quasi-zonal mid-latitude westerlies. The dominant length scale is 7000 km, the same dimensions as the width of the mid-latitude ocean. The growth time scale is 1–2 weeks, with the duration of blocking activity rarely exceeding 2 months in any given year. The blocking activity is confined almost exclusively to the autumn/winter months, where block development is closely coupled with the sensible heat transfer from the underlying ocean (anomalously small beat transfer under the ridge and anomalously large heat transfer under the associated troughs). Year-to-year variability in blocking ridge activity is found to have a dominant time scale of approximately 5 years from 1950–70 and to be in...

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