PACIFIC DECADAL OSCILLATION
type: Concept
change note: 2020-02-14 15:39:02.0 [tstevens] Remove Concepts delete narrower relation (null);
change note: 2012-06-25 11:38:07.0 [mpmorahan] Insert Concept add narrower relation (PACIFIC DECADAL OSCILLATION [2de06b90-4abe-4c71-a537-978679bf8aea,22991] - PDO [8a31313b-e60e-47e8-b7bd-df0503e7c868,39719]);
definition: Fisheries scientist Steven Hare coined the term "Pacific Decadal Oscillation" (PDO) in 1996 while researching connections between Alaska salmon production cycles and Pacific climate. PDO has since been described as a long-lived El Nino-like pattern of Pacific climate variability because the two climate oscillations have similar spatial climate fingerprints, but very different temporal behavior. Two main characteristics distinguish PDO from El Nino/ Southern Oscillation (ENSO): first, 20th century PDO "events" persisted for 20-to-30 years, while typical ENSO events persisted for 6 to 18 months; second, the climatic fingerprints of the PDO are most visible in the North Pacific/North American sector, while secondary signatures exist in the tropics - the opposite is true for ENSO. Several independent studies find evidence for just two full PDO cycles in the past century: "cool" PDO regimes prevailed from 1890-1924 and again from 1947-1976 while"warm" PDO regimes dominated from 1925-1946 and from 1977 through (at least) the mid-1990's. Shoshiro Minobe; has shown that 20th century PDO fluctuations were most energetic in two general periodicities, one from 15-to-25 years, and the other from 50-to-70 years.
in scheme: sciencekeywords

TELECONNECTIONS
type: Concept