The Average Behavior of Large-Scale Westward Traveling Disturbances Evident in the Northern Hemisphere Geopotential Heights

Abstract

The average structure of westward traveling disturbances that contribute to relative maxima found in space-time spectra from 13?32 days at northern latitudes is determined for each season. A compositing method used employs a minimum of space and time filtering in order to avoid biasing the results. The average latitudinal structure is ?global? in that it is discernible in the Southern Hemisphere during December?February and September?November. It is primarily confined to northern latitudes during March?August. In all seasons the disturbance is out of phase between northern high latitudes and subtropical and tropical latitudes. The longitudinal structure is primarily zonal wavenumber 1 in all seasons. Further work is suggested to confirm the structures determined here and to learn if they reflect the superposition of a number of occasionally excited Rossby normal modes.