Table 4.

Correlations between selected variables. The rows correspond to time series for the first or second EOF of the variables shown, except for the last row, which is the coastal alongtrack SLA between 35° and 45°S. The columns correspond to similar variables and three El Niño Indexes: Niño 3.4, the MEI, and Niño 1 + 2. All monthly time series except MEI are smoothed with a loess filter with a 3-month half-span. Estimates of decorrelation times (6, 9, or 12 mo) from autocorrelations are used to specify approximate 95% and 99% correlation levels, shown in the last column. Values above the 95% and 99% levels are shown in italics and bold italics, respectively. The time series extend from 1993 to 2016, except for CHL (1998–2016).

	N 3.4	MEI	N 1+2	SLA-1	SLA 0–15	SLA 35–45	τy - 1	Vy - 1	95%, 99%
SLA-1	0.71	0.75	0.67	1.00	0.72	0.74	−0.19	−0.33	0.39, 0.50
SLA-2	0.33	0.27	0.32	0.01	0.45	0.65	−0.44	−0.92	0.32, 0.44
τy-1	−0.10	−0.10	−0.14	−0.19	−0.10	−0.27	1.00	0.50	0.28, 0.36
Vy-1	−0.37	−0.33	−0.33	−0.33	−0.45	−0.66	0.50	1.00	0.28, 0.36
SST-1	0.25	0.32	0.38	0.57	0.31	0.40	−0.23	−0.11	0.32, 0.44
SST-2	0.24	0.23	0.13	0.16	0.16	0.32	−0.46	−0.41	0.32, 0.44
CHL-1	−0.20	−0.24	−0.14	−0.25	−0.23	−0.39	0.20	0.27	0.28, 0.36
CHL-2	−0.04	0.07	−0.11	0.02	−0.11	−0.17	0.09	0.19	0.32, 0.44
SLA 35–45	0.67	0.67	0.65	0.74	0.76	1.00	−0.27	−0.66	0.32, 0.44