PRELIMINARY RESEARCH OF THE PACIFIC-INDIAN OCEAN SSTA MODE AND DEFINITION OF ITS INDEX

Applying the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis to the sea surface temperature (SST) field of the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans for determination of the first eigenvector field, the current work reveals that there are significant zonal gradients of SST in all seasons of the year in the northwestern and eastern Indian Ocean and equatorial central and eastern Pacific and western Pacific. It is also found that the variance contribution rates of the first EOF mode of every season is more than 33%. This shows that this kind of spatial distribution of the SST is stable. This pattern is named Pacific-Indian Oceans SSTA mode. Through careful analysis and comparison, an index of the mode was defined.