Tropical-Extratropical Geopotential Height Teleconnections during the Northern Hemisphere Winter

Abstract Simultaneous and lagged correlation statistics have been calculated between time series of seasonal height anomalies at selected stations and extratropical grid-point anomalies in both hemispheres. The tropical stations in two major tropical precipitation zones, the Indo-China maritime continent and Africa, are well correlated with each other. These stations are also correlated with stations in the North Pacific and Australia, but the coefficients are smaller. The correlations between height anomalies at any of these stations and Northern Hemisphere height anomalies show a well-defined global pattern. Depending upon the location of the stations, the pattern is either a Pacific North American (PNA), a Tropical Northern Hemisphere (TNH) pattern or a mixed pattern having both elements. All three patterns, PNA, TNH and WPO (Western Pacific Oscillation), have been linked to tropical variations. The correlations between height anomalies at these well-correlated stations and the Southern Hemisphere heig...