Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/38513

KEYWORDS : Decadal climate change;Climatic regime shifts;Air-sea interaction

The anomalous climate conditions in the atmosphere and ocean over the North Pacific starting in 1998/99 are revisited using the updated data in the last five decade. The anomalous sea-surface temperatures and atmospheric circulations returned to the normal condition in the middle of the 2002. The sea-level displacement anomalies propagated as Rossby waves from the central North Pacific to Japan. It is suggested that the large part of the 1998/99 climate change can be understood as the quasi-decadal fluctuation of the East Pacific pattern and oceanic responses to it, and hence may be qualitatively different from the major climatic regime shifts in the 20th century.