AIR-SEA COUPLING MODES OF TROPICAL PACIFIC SSTA AND WIND STRESS FIELDS

The EOF thechnique is employed to investigate the characteristic modes of spatial distribution and features of temporal variation in the context of 1970-1989 wind stress and SSTA datasets over the tropical Pacific. Results show similar variation in the time coefficients of the first eigenvectors for the wind stress and SSTA fields, revealing air-sea interaction and coupling at the multiple space/time scales,which are in fairly good correspondence to the E1 Nino cycle.