Impact of the Equatorial Atlantic on the El Ni?o Southern Oscillation

Observations indicate that the Atlantic zonal mode influences El Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the Pacific, as already suggested in previous studies. Here we demonstrate for the first time using partial coupled experiments that the Atlantic zonal mode indeed influences ENSO. The partial coupling experiments are performed by forcing the coupled general circulation model (ECHAM5/MPI-OM) with observed sea surface temperature (SST) in the Tropical Atlantic, but with full air-sea coupling allowed in the Pacific and Indian Ocean. The ensemble mean of a five member simulation reproduces the observational results well. Analysis of observations, reanalysis, and coupled model simulations all indicate the following mechanism: SST anomalies associated with the Atlantic zonal mode affect the Walker Circulation, driving westward wind anomalies over the equatorial Pacific during boreal summer. The wind stress anomalies increase the east-west thermocline slope and enhance the SST gradient across the Pacific; the Bjerknes positive feedback acts to amplify these anomalies favouring the development of a La Ni?a-like anomalies. The same mechanisms act for the cold phase of Atlantic zonal mode, but with opposite sign. In contrast to previous studies, the model shows that the influence on ENSO exists before 1970. Furthermore, no significant influence of the Tropical Atlantic on the Indian Monsoon precipitation is found in observation or model.     

Impact of Pacific Decadal Oscillation on Frequency Asymmetry of El Nio and La Nia Events

正El Nio–Southern Oscillation(ENSO)is an abnormal sea surface warming or cooling phenomenon over the tropical Pacific,which also has severe global impact.Interestingly,ENSO characteristics are changing with climate change(e.g.,Collins et al.,2010).Therefore,it is expected that ENSO can be modulated on the decadal time scale,particularly when the tropical climate background state is fluctuating strongly     

Revisiting Asymmetry for the Decaying Phases of El Ni?o and La Ni?a

This study investigated the relationship between the asymmetry in the duration of El Ni?o and La Ni?a and the length of their decaying phases. The results suggested that the duration asymmetry comes from the long decaying ENSO cases rather than the short decaying ones. The evolutions of short decaying El Ni?o and La Ni?a are approximately a mirror image with a rapid decline in the following summer for the warm and cold events. However, a robust asymmetry was found in long decaying cases, with a prolonged and re-intensified La Ni?a in the following winter. The asymmetry for long decaying cases starts from the westward extension of the zonal wind anomalies in a mature winter, and is further contributed to by the air-sea interaction over the tropical Pacific in the following seasons.     

The Asymmetric Effects of El Ni?o and La Ni?a on the East Asian Winter Monsoon and Their Simulation by CMIP5 Atmospheric Models

El Ni?o–Southern Oscillation(ENSO) events significantly affect the year-by-year variations of the East Asian winter monsoon(EAWM). However, the effect of La Ni?a events on the EAWM is not a mirror image of that of El Ni?o events. Although the EAWM becomes generally weaker during El Ni?o events and stronger during La Ni?a winters, the enhanced precipitation over the southeastern China and warmer surface air temperature along the East Asian coastline during El Ni?o years are more significant. These asymmetric effects are caused by the asymmetric longitudinal positions of the western North Pacific(WNP) anticyclone during El Ni?o events and the WNP cyclone during La Ni?a events; specifically, the center of the WNP cyclone during La Ni?a events is westward-shifted relative to its El Ni?o counterpart. This central-position shift results from the longitudinal shift of remote El Ni?o and La Ni?a anomalous heating, and asymmetry in the amplitude of local sea surface temperature anomalies over the WNP.However, such asymmetric effects of ENSO on the EAWM are barely reproduced by the atmospheric models of Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project(CMIP5), although the spatial patterns of anomalous circulations are reasonably reproduced. The major limitation of the CMIP5 models is an overestimation of the anomalous WNP anticyclone/cyclone, which leads to stronger EAWM rainfall responses. The overestimated latent heat flux anomalies near the South China Sea and the northern WNP might be a key factor behind the overestimated anomalous circulations.     

Influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on the long-term record of floods over Bangladesh

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - The present study analyzed a long-term record of major floods over Bangladesh under the influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Bangladesh...     

Has the Problem of a Permanent El Nio been Resolved for the Mid-Pliocene?

The mid-Pliocene, the most recent warm geological period, is thought to be indicative of the fate of the Earth's climate under global warming. Earlier evidence has suggested that permanent El Nio-like conditions existed in the mid-Pliocene, though the concept of a permanent El Nio remains controversial. Here, the authors analyzed Nio 3.4 SST in pre-industrial and mid-Pliocene simulations with the low-resolution version of the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM-L). The simulated mid-Pliocene Nio3.4 SST, with a smaller standard deviation, indicated that a weaker ENSO existed in the mid-Pliocene relative to the pre-industrial experiment. Compared with earlier modeling studies, our simulations show that the problem of ENSO's standard deviations in the mid-Pliocene remains unresolved, although the mean and the period of ENSO in the mid-Pliocene have been resolved by earlier geological and modeling studies.     

Asymmetry of Atmospheric Responses to Two-Type El Ni?o and La Ni?a over Northwest Pacific

The mechanism for asymmetric atmospheric responses to the central Pacific(CP) El Ni?o and La Ni?a over the western North Pacific(WNP) is studied in this paper. The negative anomalies of rainfall over the key region of WNP are explained by diagnosing the column-integrated equations of moisture and moist static energy(MSE). It is revealed that the nonlinear advection of moist enthalpy is critical to introduce negative rainfall anomalies over the region. The anomalous easterly(westerly) in La Ni?a(CP El Ni?o) causes negative advection of anomalous moist enthalpy, inducing negative heating anomaly and an anticyclone anomaly in the WNP, which weakens(strengthens) the cyclone(anticyclone) in La Ni?a(CP El Ni?o). The MSE budget analysis shows a larger nonlinear term in CP El Ni?o than in eastern Pacific(EP) El Ni?o, inconsistent with the amplitudes of sea surface temperature anomalies. The reason is that the nonlinear term transforms to positive above 700 h Pa in EP El Ni?o, offsetting the negative advection below 700 h Pa and thus making the nonlinear term smaller. The nonlinear term is negative at low levels in CP El Ni?o, resulting in a larger nonlinear term. The stronger precipitation anomalies in the WNP during EP El Ni?o can be attributed to the linear moist enthalpy advection. The mean easterly wind at mid levels causes a larger(smaller) positive moist enthalpy advection in CP(EP) El Ni?o, due to a larger(smaller) moist enthalpy gradient, resulting in a positive(negative) linear moist enthalpy advection, which weakens(strengthens) the negative precipitation anomalies in the key region.     

Subsurface ocean temperature indices for Central-Pacific and Eastern-Pacific types of El Ni?o and La Ni?a events

Subsurface ocean temperature indices are developed to identify two distinct types of tropical Pacific warming (El Ni?o) and cooling (La Ni?a) events: the Eastern-Pacific (EP) type and the Central-Pacific (CP) type. Ocean temperature anomalies in the upper 100?m are averaged over the eastern (80°W?C90°W, 5°S?C5°N) and central (160°E?C150°W, 5°S?C5°N) equatorial Pacific to construct the EP and CP subsurface indices, respectively. The analysis is performed for the period of 1958?C2001 using an ocean data assimilation product. It is found that the EP/CP subsurface indices are less correlated and show stronger skewness than the sea surface temperature (SST)-based indices. In addition, while both quasi-biennial (??2?years) and quasi-quadrennial (??4?years) periodicities appear in the SST-based indices for these two types, the subsurface indices are dominated only by the quasi-biennial periodicity for the CP type and by the quasi-quadrennial (??4?years) periodicity for the EP type. Low correlation, high skewness, and single leading periodicity are desirable properties for defining indices to separate the EP and CP types. Using the subsurface indices, major El Ni?o and La Ni?a events identified by the Ni?o-3.4 SST index are classified as the EP or CP types for the analysis period. It is found that most strong El Ni?o events are of the EP type while most strong La Ni?a events are of the CP type. It is also found that strong CP-type La Ni?a events tend to occur after strong EP-type El Ni?o events. The reversed subsequence (i.e., strong EP El Ni?o events follow strong CP La Ni?a events) does not appear to be typical. This study shows that subsurface ocean indices are an effective way to identify the EP and CP types of Pacific El Ni?o and La Ni?a events.     

Hypothesis on a possible role of El Ni?o in the occurrence of influenza pandemics

The El Ni?o phenomenon is the Earth??s strongest climatic fluctuation on an interannual timescale and has a quasi-global impact, although originating in the tropical Pacific Ocean. A very strong El Ni?o is recognized to cause extreme dryness and wetness in different parts of the world. We show that all the eight well-documented influenza pandemics, starting from the first certain one documented in ad 1580, originated in China and in Russia, a few years after the occurrence of a very strong or after a prolonged strong/moderate El Ni?o event. At present, the next El Ni?o will probably occur at the beginning of 2013 (Mazzarella et al. Theor Appl Climatol 100:23?C27, 2010), and this forecast may suggest to be well prepared to take appropriate precautionary epidemiological measures.     

Influence of the pace of El Niño decay on tropical cyclone frequency over the western north pacific during decaying El Niño summers

This study investigated the distinct responses of western North Pacific (WNP) tropical cyclone (TC) activity during different decaying El Niño summers. The El Niño events were classified into two types according to the periodicity of the ENSO cycle, with positive SST anomalies in the equatorial central-eastern Pacific maintaining positive values into the following summer as the slow decaying (SD) cases, but transforming to negative values in the following summer as the rapid decaying (RD) cases. Compared with that in SD El Niño summers, the TC occurrence frequency over the WNP is significantly lower in RD El Niño summers, led by a much weaker WNP monsoon trough with more unfavorable environmental factors for TC genesis and development. Further examination showed that the apparent warming over the tropical Indian Ocean basin and cooling over the equatorial central-eastern Pacific contribute together to an enhanced lower-tropospheric anticyclone through modulation of the descending branch of the large-scale Walker circulation over the WNP, which may play a crucial role in suppressing the TC activity during the decaying summer of RD El Niño cases. In contrast, the warming equatorial central-eastern Pacific and remote western Indian Ocean induce a weakening WNP anticyclone and less suppressed deep convection during the decaying summer of SD El Niño cases. Thus, the different evolution of SST anomalies associated with different paces of El Niño decay results in the linkage between the preceding winter El Niño and the decreased WNP TC frequency in summer being more (less) robust for RD (SD) El Niño cases.摘要本文分析了El Niño事件衰减速度的差异对衰退年夏季西北太平洋热带气旋 (tropical cyclone, TC) 频数的不同影响. 按照El Niño事件衰减速度不同, 将其划分为迅速衰减 (rapid decaying, RD) 和缓慢衰减 (slow decaying, SD) 的El Niño事件. SD (RD) El Niño事件的衰退年夏季, 赤道中东太平洋海温仍维持正异常 (衰减为负异常) . 与SD El Niño事件相比, RD El Niño事件衰退年夏季西北太平洋TC频数显著减少. 进一步的分析揭示了导致TC频数差异的大尺度环境要素, 指出热带印度洋-太平洋海温异常密切相关的西北太平洋低层反气旋异常在其中起到了关键作用.     

The impact of El Ni?o on South American summer climate during different phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

In austral summer, the observed El Ni?o (EN) events during warm Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) phases (PDO(+)) exhibited large anomalous upper level wave patterns in response to larger Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies in the Equatorial Pacific and Atlantic Oceans compared with SST anomalies in EN events during cold PDO phases (PDO(?)). The precipitation anomalies in PDO(+) EN are increased over Southeastern South America (SESA) associated with the intensification of the moisture flux convergence in this region. The PDO(?) EN events exhibit positive precipitation anomalies only over southern SESA, while negative anomalies were observed in the north. Downward motion and anomalous divergence over central eastern Brazil may have contributed to the weakening of the northwesterly moisture flux convergence associated with the South American Low Level Jet (SALLJ) over the subtropics. The extratropical cyclones showed higher frequency and lower central pressures in southern Brazil, Uruguay, northeastern Argentina, and Southwest Atlantic Ocean during the PDO(+) EN events compared with the PDO(?) EN events. Such increase in the frequency and intensity of cyclogenesis cases seems to be in accordance with the anomalous moisture flux convergence over the SESA and associated reduction in the Sea Level Pressure observed during PDO(+) EN events. In order to investigate the impact of a canonical El Ni?o event over South America under different PDO phases, two numerical experiments were done with an Atmospheric General Circulation Model. Global SST and ice sea fields average over years characterized by (a) PDO(+) and (b) PDO(?) were considered as climatologically fields, and a composite of anomalies of SST of all El Ni?o events observed in 1950?C1999 was added in the region 20oS?C20oN;120oW?C175oW of both ??climatologies.?? The differences in experiments suggest that a canonical EN may produce significant different anomalous atmospheric patterns associated with distinct PDO climatologies. The more significant differences are simulated over extreme northern and eastern Brazil. Additional numerical experiments isolating the observed variability of SST over several oceanic basins during different PDO phases will be conducted to study their particular role on the South American climate.     

Intraseasonal variation of the East Asian summer monsoon in La Ni?a years

合成分析了La Ni?a年东亚夏季风和东亚夏季降水的季节内变化。结果表明,La Ni?a年夏季暖池对流偏强,西太平洋出现异常气旋,西太平洋副高偏向东北。这种异常型随季节进程有明显变化,7月异常达到最大。La Ni?a年东亚降水呈纬向型分布,中国东部降水偏少,西太平洋海面降水偏多。与此相比,El Ni?o年降水呈经向型分布,热带降水偏少,副热带和中纬度降水偏多。因此,不能简单将La Ni?a的影响认为是El Ni?o的反对称。     

Combined effect of El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation on the East Asian winter monsoon

Using long-term observational data and numerical model experiments, the combined effect of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) on the variability of the East Asian winter monsoon is examined. In the observations, it is found that when the ENSO and PDO are in-phase combinations (i.e., El Niño/positive PDO phase and La Niña/negative PDO phase), a negative relationship between ENSO and East Asian winter monsoon is significantly intensified. In other words, when El Niño (La Niña) occurs with positive (negative) PDO phase, anomalous warm (cold) temperatures are dominant over the East Asian winter continent. On the other hand, there are no significant temperature anomalies when the ENSO and PDO are out-of-phase combinations (i.e., El Niño/negative PDO phase and La Niña/positive PDO phase). Further analyses indicate that the anticyclone over the western North Pacific including the East Asian marginal seas plays an essential role in modulating the intensity of the East Asian winter monsoon under the changes of ENSO–PDO phase relationship. Long-lasting high pressure and warm sea surface temperature anomalies during the late fall/winter and following spring over the western North Pacific, which appear as the El Niño occurs with positive PDO phase, can lead to a weakened East Asian winter monsoon by transporting warm and wet conditions into the East Asian continent through the southerly wind anomalies along the western flank of the anomalous high pressure, and vice versa as the La Niña occurs with negative PDO phase. In contrast, the anomalous high pressure over the western North Pacific does not show a prominent change under the out-of-phase combinations of ENSO and PDO. Numerical model experiments confirm the observational results, accompanying dominant warm temperature anomalies over East Asia via strong anticyclonic circulation anomalies near the Philippine Sea as the El Niño occurs with positive PDO phase, whereas such warming is weakened as the El Niño occurs with negative PDO phase. This result supports the argument that the changes in the East Asian winter monsoon intensity with ENSO are largely affected by the strength of the anticyclone over the western North Pacific, which significantly changes according to the ENSO–PDO phase relationship.     

The El Niño Southern Oscillation and economic growth in the developing world

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects weather around the globe, particularly in regions where developing countries typically lie. These countries are known to be most vulnerable to weather anomalies, and ENSO thereby has the potential to influence their economic growth. In this study, we investigate the effect of ENSO on economic growth in 69 developing countries, using annual data from 1961 to 2015. We find regime-dependent nonlinearity in the growth response to ENSO shocks. An El Niño event, equivalent to a 1 °C deviation in sea surface temperatures in the Niño3.4 region of the equatorial Pacific, results in one-to-two percent annual growth reduction during the El Niño regime, but the effect is absent during the La Niña regime. In addition, we find that the effect of El Niño is twice-as-large in the tropics relative to temperate areas, and particularly pronounced in Africa and Asia-Pacific. The findings of this study have two important implications. From the modeling standpoint, we find that the growth impacts of ENSO shocks are nonlinear, and vary across regions and climatic zones. From the policy-making standpoint, our findings suggest opportunities for short-term adjustments to climate shock management and international aid programs, depending on the existing state and the intermediate-term patterns of the ENSO cycle.     

Connections Between Different Types of El Nio and Southern/Northern Oscillation

It has long been acknowledged that there are two types of El Nio events, i.e., the eastern Pacific El Nio (EE) and the central Pacific El Nio (CE), according to the initial position of the anomalous warm water and its propagation direction. In this paper, the oceanic and atmospheric evolutions and the possible mechanisms of the two types of El Nio events were examined. It is found that all the El Nio events, CE or EE, could be attributed to the joint impacts of the eastward advection of warm water from...     

Connections Between Different Types of El Nio and Southern/Northern Oscillation

It has long been acknowledged that there are two types of El Nio events, i.e., the eastern Pacific El Nio (EE) and the central Pacific El Nio (CE), according to the initial position of the anomalous warm water and its propagation direction. In this paper, the oceanic and atmospheric evolutions and the possible mechanisms of the two types of El Nio events were examined. It is found that all the El Nio events, CE or EE, could be attributed to the joint impacts of the eastward advection of warm water from the western Pacific warm pool (WPWP) and the local warming in the equatorial eastern Pacific. Before the occurrence of CE events, WPWP had long been in a state of being anomalous warm, so the strength of eastward advection of warm water was much stronger than that of EE, which played a major role in the formation of CE. While for the EE events, most contribution came from the local warming of the equatorial eastern Pacific. It is further identified that the immediate cause leading to the difference of the two types of El Nio events was the asynchronous variations of the Southern Oscillation (SO) and the Northern Oscillation (NO) as defined by Chen in 1984. When the transition from the positive phase of the NO (NO+) to NO- was prior to that from SO+ to SO-, there would be eastward propagation of westerly anomalies from the tropical western Pacific induced by NO and hence the growth of warm sea surface temperature anomalies in WPWP and its eastward propagation. This was followed by lagged SO-induced weakening of southeast trade winds and local warming in the equatorial eastern Pacific. These were conducive to the occurrence of the CE. On the contrary, the transition from SO+ to SO- leading the transition of NO would favor the occurrence of EE type events.     

Diverse influences of spring Arctic Oscillation on the following winter El Niño–Southern Oscillation in CMIP5 models

Climate Dynamics - This study evaluates the ability of 35 climate models, which participate in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) historical climate simulations, in...     

Intraseasonal variability of western North Pacific subtropical high based on the El Ni?o influence and its relationship with East Asian summer monsoon

The boreal summer season could be divided into two periods in terms of the variability of western North Pacific subtropical high (WNPSH) based on the El Ni?o influence. The correlation analysis indicates that the WNPSH in the period of pentad 32?C37 (June 5 to July 4, first period) is not affected by El Ni?o, while that in the period of pentad 40?C45 (July 15 to August 13, second period) is strongly affected by sea surface temperature in the equatorial eastern Pacific in the previous winter. The different response of low-level circulation over the western North Pacific (WNP) to the El Ni?o forcing between two periods seems to be due to the difference of mean climatological fields over the WNP and the East Asian regions. The WNPSH in the first period is closely connected to the variability of North Pacific subtropical High. In the second period, on the other hand, the WNPSH variability is dominantly controlled by the convective activity over the WNPSH region and it is related with the El Ni?o forcing. The composite analysis on the relationship between the WNPSH and the East Asian summer monsoon exhibits distinct contrasts between two periods. In the first period, the East Asian stationary front exists all the time regardless of the strength of the WNPSH. On the other hand, in the second period the East Asian stationary front appears only when the WNPSH is strong, while there is no obvious East Asian frontal zone when it is weak.