Warren White is a professor emeritus, and a former Research Oceanographer at the Marine Biological Research Division at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.
White, with 'Buzz' Bernstein, was instrumental in the development and operation of the TRANSPAC XBT Volunteer Observing Ship program. Between 1976 and 1984, commercial ships crossing the Pacific Ocean recorded expendable bathythermograph (XBT) data. This data became instrumental in a number of studies, particularly around the Kuroshio Current. As well as its direct oceanographic value, this data was also important for determining the scale of features of interest, thus influencing the design of later observational networks.
His research interests included:
Planetary wave dynamics
Interdecadal oscillations and their relation to El Niño and La Niña
Global climate change
Coupled ocean-atmosphere interaction
He is known for his work on the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave.
White, Warren; Walker, A. E. (1974). "Time and depth scales of anomalous subsurface temperature at Ocean Weather Station P, N and V in the North Pacific". J. Phys. Oceanogr. 1979: 4517–4522.
Bernstein, R.; White, Warren (1974). "Time and length scales of baroclinic eddies in the Central North Pacific". J. Phys. Oceanogr. 4: 613–624.
White, Warren (1977). "Secular variability in the baroclinic structure of the interior North Pacific from 1950–1970". J. Mar. Res. 35 (3): 587–607.
Bernstein, R.; White, Warren (1979). "Design of an oceanographic network in the mid-latitude North Pacific". J. Phys. Oceanogr. 9: 592–606.
Bernstein, R.; White, Warren (1981). "Stationary and travelling mesoscale perturbations in the Kurushio Extension current". J. Phys. Oceanogr. 11: 692–704.
White, Warren (1982). "Travelling wave-like mesoscale perturbations in the North Pacific". J. Phys. Oceanogr. 12: 231–243.
White, Warren (1983). "Westward propagation of short term climatic anomalies in the western North Pacific Ocean from 1964–1974". J. Mar. Res. 41: 113–125.
Mizuno, K.; White, Warren (1984). "Annual and interannual variability in the Kurushio current system". J. Phys. Oceanogr. 13: 1847–1867.
White, Warren; Meyers, Gary A.; Donguy, Jean Rene; Pazan, Stephen E. (1985). "Short-Term Climatic Variability in the Thermal Structure of the Pacific Ocean during 1979–82},". J. Phys. Oceanogr. 15 (7): 917–935. doi:10.1175/1520-0485.
Talley, Lynne D.; White, Warren (1987). "Estimates of Time and Space Scales at 300 Meters in the Midlatitude North Pacific from the TRANSPAC XBT Program". J. Phys. Oceanogr. 17 (12): 2168–2188. doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1987)017<2168:EOTASS>2.0.CO;2.
White, Warren; Pazan, Stephen E.; Withee, Gregory W.; Noe, Christopher (1988). "Joint Environment Data Analysis (JEDA) Center". Eos Trans. AGU. 69 (9): 122–131. doi:10.1029/88EO00079.
White, Warren (1995). "Design of a global observing system for gyre-scale upper ocean temperature variability". Progr. Oceanogr. 36 (3): 169–217. doi:10.1016/0079-6611(95)00017-8.
White, Warren; Tai, Chang-Kou (1995). "Inferring interannual changes in global upper ocean heat storage from TOPEX altimetry". J. Geophys. Res. 100 (C12): 24943–24954. doi:10.1029/95JC02332.
White, Warren; Peterson, Ray G. (1996). "An Antarctic circumpolar wave in surface pressure, wind, temperature and sea-ice extent". Nature. 380 (6576): 699–702. doi:10.1038/380699a0.
White, Warren; Shyh-Chin Chen; Peterson, R. (1998). "The Antarctic Circumpolar Wave: A beta-effect in ocean-atmosphere coupling over the Southern Ocean". J. Phys. Oceanogr. (28): 2345–2361.
White, Warren (2000). "Influence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave upon Australia precipitation from 1958 to 1996". J. Climate. 13: 2125–2141.
White, Warren; Cayan, D. R. (2000). "A global El Niño-Southern Oscillation wave in surface temperature and pressure and its interdecadal modulation from 1900 to 1997". J. Geophys. Res. 105 (11): 223–11,242.
White, Warren; Cayan, Daniel R.; Dettinger, Michael; Sharber, James (Jan 9, 2001). "Quantitative Assessment of the Integrated Response in Global Heat and Moisture Budgets to Changing Solar Irradiance". Technical Report. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. 20010081063.
White, Warren (2001). "Evidence for coupled Rossby waves in the annual cycle of the Indo-Pacific Ocean". J. Phys. Oceanogr. (31): 2944–2957.
White, Warren; Shyh-Chin Chen; Allan, Rob J.; Stone, Roger C. (2002). "Positive feedbacks between the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave and the global El Niño-Southern Oscillation Wave". J. Geophys. Res. 107 (C10, 3165). doi:10.1029/2000JC000581.
White, Warren; McKeon, Greg; Syktus, Jozef (May 2003). "Australian drought: the interference of multi-spectral global standing modes and travelling waves". Int. J. Climatol. 23 (6): 631–662. doi:10.1002/joc.895.
White, Warren; Gershunov, Alexander; Annis, Jeffrey L.; McKeon, Greg; Syktus, Jozef (2004). "Forecasting Australian Drought Using Southern Hemisphere Modes of Sea-Surface Temperature Variability". Int. J. Climatol. 24: 1911–1927. doi:10.1002/joc.1091.
