Xll. Wang et Vr. Swail, Changes of extreme wave heights in Northern Hemisphere oceans and related atmospheric circulation regimes, J CLIMATE, 14(10), 2001, pp. 2204-2221
This study assesses trends in seasonal extremes (90- and 99-percentiles) of
Significant Wave Height (SWH) in the North Atlantic and the North Pacific,
as simulated in a 40-yr global wave hindcast using the National Centers fo
r Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research reanaly
sis wind fields. For the last four decades, statistically significant chang
es in the seasonal extremes of SWH in the North Atlantic (NA) are detected
only for the winter (January-March) season. These changes are found to be i
ntimately connected with the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO). To be specif
ic, significant increases of SWH in the northeast NA, matched by significan
t decreases in the subtropical NA, are found to be associated with an inten
sified Azores high and a deepened Icelandic low. This is consistent with th
e findings of previous studies based on different datasets. Changes in seas
onal extremes of SWH in the North Pacific (NP) are found to be statisticall
y significant for the winter and spring (April-June) seasons. Significant i
ncreases in the extremes of SWH in the central NP are found to be connected
with a deeper and eastward extended Aleutian low. For both oceans, no sign
ificant trends of SWH are detected for the last century, though significant
changes are found in the last four decades. However, multidecadal fluctuat
ions are very noticeable, especially in the North Pacific.