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Physical Processes

Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Atmospheric and Climatic Processes

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The Pacific Decadal Oscillation is a long-lived pattern of North Pacific sea surface temperature variability that shifts between a warm phase, in which the interior of the North Pacific is cool and the coastal waters of North America are warm, and a cool phase with the opposite pattern. Unlike El Nino, whose phases last a year or two, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation phase can persist for twenty to thirty years at a stretch, and it was first named for its influence on Pacific salmon production cycles observed to track its shifts.

Facts
Process Type
Climatic 1
Timescale
A single phase persists for roughly 20 to 30 years. 1
First Proposed Year
1997 1
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