Imagine that ocean conditions change at some location, 'A' - perhaps as the result of a severe storm, strong tide or El Niño. Information about the change in ocean state travels in a finite time to another location - 'B', say - before B knows about the change at A. The speed and manner in which such disturbances propagate influence the ocean's response to climate change. The same holds true in reverse: propagating disturbances can impact on climate, even on individual weather events. Propagating systems in the ocean include temperature anomalies, planetary waves, eddies, current meanders - often linked together in complex ways. They may also be coupled or linked to the atmosphere above. We are trying to understand how propagating features are generated, propagate and dissipate. This research is crucial to our understanding of ocean dynamics and the important role of the oceans in global climate change.

According to the hypothesis of Jacobs et al. (1994), propagating planetary waves may affect the Kuroshio extension in the North Pacific