Influence of eastern Pacific and central Pacific El Niño events on winter climate extremes over the eastern and central United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (15) ◽  
pp. 4756-4770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liang Ning ◽  
Raymond S. Bradley
2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1325-1333 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Schollaen ◽  
C. Karamperidou ◽  
P. Krusic ◽  
E. Cook ◽  
G. Helle

Abstract. Indonesia's climate is dominated by the equatorial monsoon system, and has been linked to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events that often result in extensive droughts and floods over the Indonesian archipelago. In this study we investigate ENSO-related signals in a tree-ring δ18O record (1900–2007) of Javanese teak. Our results reveal a clear influence of Warm Pool (central Pacific) El Niño events on Javanese tree-ring δ18O, and no clear signal of Cold Tongue (eastern Pacific) El Niño events. These results are consistent with the distinct impacts of the two ENSO flavors on Javanese precipitation, and illustrate the importance of considering ENSO flavors when interpreting palaeoclimate proxy records in the tropics, as well as the potential of palaeoclimate proxy records from appropriately selected tropical regions for reconstructing past variability of. ENSO flavors.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 885-899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxiao Tan ◽  
Youmin Tang ◽  
Tao Lian ◽  
Zhixiong Yao ◽  
Xiaojing Li ◽  
...  

AbstractNumerous works have indicated that westerly wind bursts (WWBs) have a significant contribution to the development of El Niño events. However, the simulation of WWBs commonly suffers from large biases in the current generation of coupled general circulation models (CGCMs), limiting our ability to predict El Niño events. In this study, we introduce a WWBs parameterization scheme into the global coupled Community Earth System Model (CESM) to improve the representation of WWBs and to study the impacts of WWBs on El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) characteristics. It is found that CESM with the WWBs parameterization scheme can generate more realistic characteristics of WWBs, in particular their location and seasonal variation of occurrence. With the parameterized WWBs, the skewness of the Niño 3 index is increased, in better agreement with observation. Eastern Pacific El Niño and central Pacific El Niño events could be successfully reproduced in the model run with WWBs parameterization. Further diagnoses show that the enhanced horizontal advection in the central Pacific and vertical advection in the eastern Pacific, both of which are triggered by WWBs, are crucial factors responsible for the improvements in ENSO simulation. Clearly, WWBs have important effects on ENSO asymmetry and ENSO diversity.


2014 ◽  
Vol 119 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 379-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Pascolini-Campbell ◽  
D. Zanchettin ◽  
O. Bothe ◽  
C. Timmreck ◽  
D. Matei ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin A. Schulte ◽  
Sukyoung Lee

Abstract. Possible mechanisms behind the longevity of intense Long Island Sound (LIS) water temperature events are examined using an event-based approach. By decomposing a LIS surface water temperature time series into negative and positive events, it is revealed that the most intense LIS water temperature event in the 1979–2013 period occurred around 2012, coinciding with the 2012 ocean heat wave across the mid-Atlantic Bight. The LIS events are related to a ridge-trough dipole pattern whose strength and evolution can be measured using a dipole index. The dipole index was shown to be strongly correlated with LIS water temperature anomalies, explaining close to 64 % of cool-season LIS water temperature variability. Consistently, a major dipole pattern event coincided with the intense 2012 LIS warm event. A composite analysis revealed that long-lived intense LIS water temperature events are associated with tropical sea surface temperature (SST) patterns. The onset and mature phases of LIS cold events were shown to coincide with central Pacific El Niño events, whereas the termination of LIS cold events was shown to possibly coincide with canonical El Niño events or El Niño events that are a mixture of eastern and central Pacific El Niño flavors. The mature phase of LIS warm events was shown to be associated with negative SST anomalies across the central equatorial Pacific, though the results were not found to be robust. The dipole pattern was also shown to be related to tropical SST patterns and fluctuations in central Pacific SST anomalies were shown to evolve coherently with the dipole pattern and the strongly related East Pacific/North Pacific pattern on decadal time scales. The results from this study have important implications for seasonal and decadal prediction of the LIS thermal system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (6) ◽  
pp. 2824-2834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Kennel ◽  
Elena Yulaeva

A conceptual model connecting seasonal loss of Arctic sea ice to midlatitude extreme weather events is applied to the 21st-century intensification of Central Pacific trade winds, emergence of Central Pacific El Nino events, and weakening of the North Pacific Aleutian Low Circulation. According to the model, Arctic Ocean warming following the summer sea-ice melt drives vertical convection that perturbs the upper troposphere. Static stability calculations show that upward convection occurs in annual 40- to 45-d episodes over the seasonally ice-free areas of the Beaufort-to-Kara Sea arc. The episodes generate planetary waves and higher-frequency wave trains that transport momentum and heat southward in the upper troposphere. Regression of upper tropospheric circulation data on September sea-ice area indicates that convection episodes produce wave-mediated teleconnections between the maximum ice-loss region north of the Siberian Arctic coast and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). These teleconnections generate oppositely directed trade-wind anomalies in the Central and Eastern Pacific during boreal winter. The interaction of upper troposphere waves with the ITCZ air–sea column may also trigger Central Pacific El Nino events. Finally, waves reflected northward from the ITCZ air column and/or generated by triggered El Nino events may be responsible for the late winter weakening of the Aleutian Low Circulation in recent years.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyerim Kim ◽  
Sang‐Wook Yeh ◽  
Soon‐Il An ◽  
Jae‐Heung Park ◽  
Baek‐Min Kim ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (13) ◽  
pp. 4819-4842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young-Kwon Lim ◽  
Robin M. Kovach ◽  
Steven Pawson ◽  
Guillaume Vernieres

The 2015/16 El Niño is analyzed using atmospheric and oceanic analysis produced using the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) data assimilation systems. As well as describing the structure of the event, a theme of this work is to compare and contrast it with two other strong El Niños, in 1982/83 and 1997/98. These three El Niño events are included in the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) and in the more recent MERRA-2 reanalyses. MERRA-2 allows a comparison of fields derived from the underlying GEOS model, facilitating a more detailed comparison of physical forcing mechanisms in the El Niño events. Various atmospheric and oceanic structures indicate that the 2015/16 El Niño maximized in the Niño-3.4 region, with a large region of warming over most of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The eastern tropical Indian Ocean, Maritime Continent, and western tropical Pacific are found to be less dry in boreal winter, compared to the earlier two strong events. Whereas the 2015/16 El Niño had an earlier occurrence of the equatorial Pacific warming and was the strongest event on record in the central Pacific, the 1997/98 event exhibited a more rapid growth due to stronger westerly wind bursts and the Madden–Julian oscillation during spring, making it the strongest El Niño in the eastern Pacific. Compared to 1982/83 and 1997/98, the 2015/16 event had a shallower thermocline over the eastern Pacific with a weaker zonal contrast of subsurface water temperatures along the equatorial Pacific. While the three major ENSO events have similarities, each is unique when looking at the atmosphere and ocean surface and subsurface.


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