North Atlantic atmosphere-ocean interaction on intraseasonal time scales

The authors examine wintertime atmosphere–ocean interaction on weekly time scales over the North Atlantic sector. Consistent with previous results, it is found that the strongest interactions between the ocean and atmosphere occur when the atmosphere leads. However, the authors also find a spatially coherent and statistically significant pattern of sea surface temperature anomalies over the Gulf Stream extension region that precedes changes in the leading mode of Northern Hemisphere atmospheric variablilty by ∼2 weeks.