 Rossby-wave teleconnection

A spatially localized forcing, such as persistent tropical heating, can excite Rossby waves that propagate wave activity into distant regions. Mean winds Doppler-shift the waves, and background potential vorticity gradients and jets guide or refract the packets. A stationary pattern can thus connect remote ridges and troughs even though the underlying wave energy propagates. Group velocity, rather than phase velocity alone, diagnoses packet propagation; damping, seasonality and eddy feedbacks affect the response.