Anthropogenic speed-up of oceanic planetary waves

We have analyzed a suite of state-of-the-art climate model simulations, and show that anthropogenic warming of the upper ocean produces a detectable speed-up of low-latitude North Pacific oceanic planetary waves by the end of the 20th century. The projected percent increase in propagation speed for the end of the 21st century is about 35% ( relative to pre-industrial) following one of the standard emissions scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This remarkable simulated effect of oceanic warming on planetary wave propagation speed portends important observed change in interannual climate variability.