The March 1997 Westerly Wind Event and the Onset of the 1997/98 El Niño: Understanding the Role of the Atmospheric Response

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (20) ◽  
pp. 3330-3343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Lengaigne ◽  
Jean-Philippe Boulanger ◽  
Christophe Menkes ◽  
Gurvan Madec ◽  
Pascale Delecluse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
Westerly Wind ◽  
Wind Event

The essential role of early-spring westerly wind burst in generating the centennial extreme 1997/98 El Niño

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
Tao Lian ◽  
Dake Chen
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Strong Nonlinearity ◽  
Westerly Wind ◽  
Enso Dynamics

AbstractWhile both intrinsic low-frequency atmosphere–ocean interaction and multiplicative burst-like event affect the development of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the strong nonlinearity in ENSO dynamics has prevented us from separating their relative contributions. Here we propose an online filtering scheme to estimate the role of the westerly wind bursts (WWBs), a type of aperiodic burst-like atmospheric perturbation over the western-central tropical Pacific, in the genesis of the centennial extreme 1997/98 El Niño using the CESM coupled model. This scheme highlights the deterministic part of ENSO dynamics during model integration, and clearly demonstrates that the strong and long-lasting WWB in March 1997 was essential for generating the 1997/98 El Niño. Without this WWB, the intrinsic low-frequency coupling would have only produced a weak warm event in late 1997 similar to the 2014/15 El Niño.

scholarly journals About the role of Westerly Wind Events in the possible development of an El Niño in 2014

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (18) ◽  
pp. 6476-6483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe E. Menkes ◽  
Matthieu Lengaigne ◽  
Jérôme Vialard ◽  
Martin Puy ◽  
Patrick Marchesiello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Westerly Wind ◽  
Wind Events ◽  
Westerly Wind Events

scholarly journals Role of non-linear oceanic processes in the response to westerly wind events: New implications for the 1997 El Niño onset

2001 ◽  
Vol 28 (8) ◽  
pp. 1603-1606 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-P. Boulanger ◽  
E. Durand ◽  
J.-P. Duvel ◽  
C. Menkes ◽  
P. Delecluse ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Westerly Wind ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Wind Events ◽  
Westerly Wind Events

scholarly journals Role of the Indo-Pacific Interbasin Coupling in Predicting Asymmetric ENSO Transition and Duration

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 3321-3335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masamichi Ohba ◽  
Masahiro Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
La Niña ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Enso Asymmetry ◽  
Sst Anomalies

Warm and cold phases of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exhibit a significant asymmetry in their transition/duration such that El Niño tends to shift rapidly to La Niña after the mature phase, whereas La Niña tends to persist for up to 2 yr. The possible role of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Indian Ocean (IO) in this ENSO asymmetry is investigated using a coupled general circulation model (CGCM). Decoupled-IO experiments are conducted to assess asymmetric IO feedbacks to the ongoing ENSO evolution in the Pacific. Identical-twin forecast experiments show that a coupling of the IO extends the skillful prediction of the ENSO warm phase by about one year, which was about 8 months in the absence of the IO coupling, in which a significant drop of the prediction skill around the boreal spring (known as the spring prediction barrier) is found. The effect of IO coupling on the predictability of the Pacific SST is significantly weaker in the decay phase of La Niña. Warm IO SST anomalies associated with El Niño enhance surface easterlies over the equatorial western Pacific and hence facilitate the El Niño decay. However, this mechanism cannot be applied to cold IO SST anomalies during La Niña. The result of these CGCM experiments estimates that approximately one-half of the ENSO asymmetry arises from the phase-dependent nature of the Indo-Pacific interbasin coupling.

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