Temporal coherence between monthly mean temperature patterns for the sea surface of the North Pacific is far greater than any known meteorological coherence, has a smooth non‐Markovian die‐away with increasing lag, and is greatest when preceded by cold season months. When stratified according to initial month, the data show a striking tendency for pattern recurrence from one nonsummer month to subsequent months out to two years except for summer. Apparently this pattern recurrence is due to storage of anomalously cold or warm water that is shielded by a shallow layer in summer but is stirred up to the surface by the increased wind stress during cold months.

Temporal coherence between monthly mean space‐averaged sea surface temperature anomalies over the North Pacific is appreciably greater than pattern coherence, and thus some conservatism of anomalies as they are redistributed by the North Pacific Ocean gyres is indicated. When they are stratified by initial month, autocorrelations show strong recurrence from one nonsummer month to subsequent months out to 2 years except for summer. The autocorrelations drop between May and June and rise between September and October, changes which appear to be related to wind strength and wind mixing in the oceanic surface layers.

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climatic changes on time scales ranging from a month to millenia This conference, held at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 15-17 November 1972, was, technically speaking, a workshop meeting of the AMS Committee on Paleoclimatology. Jerome Namias was the host and Arrangements Chairman for the meeting which was held in the seminar room of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics by the kind invitation of Prof. Walter Munk, Director. The purpose of the meeting was to outline the present status of climatic change data and theory by assembling a number of experts in the field to make formal presentations or to contribute to the discussions.