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The time variation of Northern Hemisphere wintertime 500 mb height fluctuations with short, intermediate and long time scales is investigated, using lag-correlation patterns derived from time-filtered data. Fluctuations with short (2.5–6 day periods) time scales propagate eastward at a rate consistent with the notion of a steering level around 700 mb, which supports an interpretation in terms of baroclinic waves. The mobile teleconnection patterns associated with the intermediate (10–30 day periods) time scales exhibit a pattern of time variation suggestive a Rossby-wave dispersion, with a predominance of southward dispersion from middle latitudes into the tropics. The geographically fixed teleconnection patterns characteristic of the longer time scales do not show a well-defined pattern of time variation, but their horizontal structure resembles that of the fastest growing normal mode associated with barotropic instability of the climatological mean wintertime flow.
Blackmon et al. (Thu,) studied this question.