ABSTRACT
Schwerdtfeger appears to be the first to use archived data from four stations in Antarctica established during the International Geophysical Year to analyze variability of the circumpolar vortex around the South Pole. This may be the first study which ultimately led to the formal naming of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) almost 30?years later. Unlike the history of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)/Northern Annular Mode (NAM) phenomenon going back to at least the 18th century Current Era, the discovery of SAM goes back approximately 30 years only. However, Gong and Wang quote Walker to argue that, in his quest to find climate phenomena possibly affecting the Indian monsoon, Sir Gilbert Walker may have glimpsed a possible SH counterpart to the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) and the NAO he discovered in the NH. SAM is the dominant pattern of atmospheric variability in extratropical SH in all seasons.
