Observation of long first-mode baroclinic Rossby waves in the North Atlantic and their connection with wind forcing

Residual sea surface height anomaly fields are obtained over the North Atlantic Basin from TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data. Evidence of westward propagating anomalies characterized as first-mode baroclinic Rossby waves is presented. The sea surface height signal is divided into two spectral bands, the first with nearly annual periods and the second with nearly semiannual periods. Values for the zonal and meridional components of the phase speed and period are obtained on a 5...