Pacific interdecadal variability in this century's sea surface temperatures

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Abstract
Analysis of this century's sea surface temperatures over the Pacific Ocean reveals an interdecadal oscillation with a period of 15–20 years. Our results show that the well‐known 1976–77 climate regime shift is not unique, but represents one of several phase transitions associated with this interdecadal oscillation, also found around 1924–25, 1941–42, and 1957–58. The oscillation's striking north‐south symmetry across the equator implies strong interactions between tropics and extratropics. A mode with a period of approximately 70 years and an apparently different spatial pattern is also identified tentatively but has to be evaluated further using longer time series.