Sea surface temperature anomalies in the North Pacific Ocean

Sea surface temperature anomalies in the mid-latitude North Pacific Ocean were compared with a first-order autoregression model in which the anomalies are forced by local atmospheric white noise. The results showed that the model can explain the power spectrum of the anomalies for a little over 50% of the investigated regions, mainly in the central regions of the Pacific, but fails, not surprisingly, in regions of strong oceanographic processes.