In a series of articles extending from 1923 to 1937, Sir Gilbert Walker statistically defined the concept of the Southern Oscillation. As part of the research a distinctive circulation pattern located in the equatorial Pacific Ocean was described. This subsequently has been called the Walker Circulation (Bjerknes, 1969).
The Walker Circulation is a convective cycle that owes its origin to the gradient of sea surface temperatures along the equator in the Pacific Ocean. When the cold water belt off the coast of equatorial South America is well established, the air above will be cool and will not become part of the ascending air of the Hadley Circulation. Instead, the air flows westward between the Hadley cells of the two hemispheres. Upon reaching the eastern part of the oceans, in the vicinity of 170°E, it is in contact with warmer water and becomes heated and supplied with moisture. A thermal circulation, embedded in the normal equatorial flow, results. Figure W1provides a schematic...
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Bibliography
Bjerknes, J., 1969. Atmospheric teleconnections from the equatorial Pacific. Monthly Weather Review, 97(3): 163–172.
Lockwood, J.G., 1979. Causes of Climate. New York: Halstead Press.
Peixoto, J.P., and Oort, A.H., 1992. Physcis of Climate. New York, American Institute of Physics.
Walker, G.T., 1928. World weather, Royal Meteorological Society Memoirs, 2.
Walker, G.T., 1930. World weather, Royal Meteorological Society Memoirs, 3.
Walker, G.T., 1932. World weather, Royal Meteorological Society Memoirs, 4.
Cross-references
Cycles and Periodicities
El Niño
Hadley Cell
The Madden-Julian Oscillation
Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction
Southern Oscillation
Teleconnections
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Oliver, J.E. (2005). Walker Circulation. In: Oliver, J.E. (eds) Encyclopedia of World Climatology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3266-8_223
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