CORRELATION IN MIDDLE AND HIGH LATITUDES BETWEEN WINTER SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE AND 500 HPA GEOPOTENTIAL HEIGHT

The method of rotational principle component(RPC) was used to diagnose the temporaland spatial distributions in winter of the geopotential heightat 500 hPa and the sea surface temperature anomaly(SSTA) in the period from 1948 to 1988.Crossed-correlation was then used to study their correlation feature.Results not only confirmed the existence of the teleconnection patterns of the Pacific and North America(PNA) pattern, the western Pacific(WP) pattern,and the west Atlantic(WA) pattern in the geopotential height fidld as identitied by Wallace and Gutzlerin 1981 by using a different technic, but also found a new pattern(EAEU) which starts from the eastern Atlantic and crosses the Eurasian Continent.The mostsig nificant SSTA pattern in winteris associated with the SSTA in the eastern equatorial Pacific and equatorial Atlantic.This is followed by the mid-latitnde SST As on the northeast Pacific,western Pacific and western Atlantic.