scholarly journals The Enhanced PNA-Like Climate Response to Pacific Interannual and Decadal Variability

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (21) ◽  
pp. 5285-5300 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Yu ◽  
A. Shabbar ◽  
F. W. Zwiers
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Stationary Wave ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Climate Response ◽  
Atmospheric Heating ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract This study provides further evidence of the impacts of tropical Pacific interannual [El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)] and Northern Pacific decadal–interdecadal [North Pacific index (NPI)] variability on the Pacific–North American (PNA) sector. Both the tropospheric circulation and the North American temperature suggest an enhanced PNA-like climate response and impacts on North America when ENSO and NPI variability are out of phase. In association with this variability, large stationary wave activity fluxes appear in the mid- to high latitudes originating from the North Pacific and flowing downstream toward North America. Atmospheric heating anomalies associated with ENSO variability are confined to the Tropics, and generally have the same sign throughout the troposphere with maximum anomalies at 400 hPa. The heating anomalies that correspond to the NPI variability exhibit a center over the midlatitude North Pacific in which the heating changes sign with height, along with tropical anomalies of comparable magnitudes. Atmospheric heating anomalies of the same sign appear in both the tropical Pacific and the North Pacific with the out-of-phase combination of ENSO and NPI. Both sources of variability provide energy transports toward North America and tend to favor the occurrence of stationary wave anomalies.

scholarly journals Contrastive Influence of ENSO and PNA on Variability and Predictability of North American Winter Precipitation

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (19) ◽  
pp. 6271-6284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaofan Li ◽  
Zeng-Zhen Hu ◽  
Ping Liang ◽  
Jieshun Zhu
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
North American ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Winter Precipitation ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
The North ◽  
Remote Forcing ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract In this work, the roles of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the variability and predictability of the Pacific–North American (PNA) pattern and precipitation in North America in winter are examined. It is noted that statistically about 29% of the variance of PNA is linearly linked to ENSO, while the remaining 71% of the variance of PNA might be explained by other processes, including atmospheric internal dynamics and sea surface temperature variations in the North Pacific. The ENSO impact is mainly meridional from the tropics to the mid–high latitudes, while a major fraction of the non-ENSO variability associated with PNA is confined in the zonal direction from the North Pacific to the North American continent. Such interferential connection on PNA as well as on North American climate variability may reflect a competition between local internal dynamical processes (unpredictable fraction) and remote forcing (predictable fraction). Model responses to observed sea surface temperature and model forecasts confirm that the remote forcing is mainly associated with ENSO and it is the major source of predictability of PNA and winter precipitation in North America.

Key Role of the North Pacific Oscillation–West Pacific Pattern in Generating the Extreme 2013/14 North American Winter

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (20) ◽  
pp. 8109-8117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Baxter ◽  
Sumant Nigam
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
North Pacific Oscillation ◽  
Winter Climate ◽  
West Pacific ◽  
The North ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract The 2013/14 boreal winter (December 2013–February 2014) brought extended periods of anomalously cold weather to central and eastern North America. The authors show that a leading pattern of extratropical variability, whose sea level pressure footprint is the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) and circulation footprint the West Pacific (WP) teleconnection—together, the NPO–WP—exhibited extreme and persistent amplitude in this winter. Reconstruction of the 850-hPa temperature, 200-hPa geopotential height, and precipitation reveals that the NPO–WP was the leading contributor to the winter climate anomaly over large swaths of North America. This analysis, furthermore, indicates that NPO–WP variability explains the most variance of monthly winter temperature over central-eastern North America since, at least, 1979. Analysis of the NPO–WP related thermal advection provides physical insight on the generation of the cold temperature anomalies over North America. Although NPO–WP’s origin and development remain to be elucidated, its concurrent links to tropical SSTs are tenuous. These findings suggest that notable winter climate anomalies in the Pacific–North American sector need not originate, directly, from the tropics. More broadly, the attribution of the severe 2013/14 winter to the flexing of an extratropical variability pattern is cautionary given the propensity to implicate the tropics, following several decades of focus on El Niño–Southern Oscillation and its regional and far-field impacts.

scholarly journals Combined Influences on North American Winter Air Temperature Variability from North Pacific Blocking and the North Atlantic Oscillation: Subseasonal and Interannual Time Scales

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (16) ◽  
pp. 7101-7123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binhe Luo ◽  
Dehai Luo ◽  
Aiguo Dai ◽  
I. Simmonds ◽  
Lixin Wu
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
North American ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The North Atlantic Oscillation ◽  
The North Pacific

AbstractWinter surface air temperature (SAT) over North America exhibits pronounced variability on subseasonal, interannual, decadal, and interdecadal time scales. Here, reanalysis data from 1950–2017 are analyzed to investigate the atmospheric and surface ocean conditions associated with its subseasonal to interannual variability. Detrended daily SAT data reveal a known warm west/cold east (WWCE) dipole over midlatitude North America and a cold north/warm south (CNWS) dipole over eastern North America. It is found that while the North Pacific blocking (PB) is important for the WWCE and CNWS dipoles, they also depend on the phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). When a negative-phase NAO (NAO−) coincides with PB, the WWCE dipole is enhanced (compared with the PB alone case) and it also leads to a warm north/cold south dipole anomaly in eastern North America; but when PB occurs with a positive-phase NAO (NAO+), the WWCE dipole weakens and the CNWS dipole is enhanced. The PB events concurrent with the NAO− (NAO+) and SAT WWCE (CNWS) dipole are favored by the Pacific El Niño–like (La Niña–like) sea surface temperature mode and the positive (negative) North Pacific mode. The PB-NAO+ has a larger component projecting onto the SAT WWCE dipole during the La Niña winter than during the El Niño winter because a more zonal wave train is formed. Strong North American SAT WWCE dipoles and enhanced projections of PB-NAO+ events onto the SAT WWCE dipole component are also readily seen for the positive North Pacific mode. The North Pacific mode seems to play a bigger role in the North American SAT variability than ENSO.

scholarly journals Which MJO Events Affect North American Temperatures?

2013 ◽  
Vol 141 (11) ◽  
pp. 3840-3850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl J. Schreck ◽  
Jason M. Cordeira ◽  
David Margolin
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Wave Breaking ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Teleconnection Patterns ◽  
The North ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract Tropical convection from the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) excites and amplifies extratropical Rossby waves around the globe. This forcing is reflected in teleconnection patterns like the Pacific–North American (PNA) pattern, and it can ultimately result in temperature anomalies over North America. Previous studies have not explored whether the extratropical response might vary from one MJO event to another. This study proposes a new index, the multivariate PNA (MVP), to identify variations in the extratropical waveguide over the North Pacific and North America that might affect the response to the MJO. The MVP is the first combined EOF of 20–100-day OLR, 850-hPa streamfunction, and 200-hPa streamfunction over the North Pacific and North America. The North American temperature patterns that follow each phase of the MJO change with the sign of the MVP. For example, real-time multivariate MJO (RMM) phase 5 usually leads to warm anomalies over eastern North America. This relationship was only found when the MVP was negative, and it was not associated with El Niño or La Niña. RMM phase 8, on the other hand, usually leads to cold anomalies. Those anomalies only occur if the MVP is positive, which happens somewhat more frequently during La Niña years. Composite analyses based on combinations of the MJO and the MVP show that variability in the Pacific jet and its associated wave breaking play a key role in determining whether and how the MJO affects North American temperatures.

Future changes in ENSO teleconnections over the North Pacific and North America in CMIP6 simulations

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Beverley ◽  
Mat Collins ◽  
Hugo Lambert ◽  
Rob Chadwick
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Positive Temperature ◽  
Temperature Anomalies ◽  
The North ◽  
Enso Teleconnections ◽  
The Future ◽  
The North Pacific

<p>El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has major impacts on the weather and climate across many regions of the world. Understanding how these teleconnections may change in the future is therefore an important area of research. Here, we use simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) to investigate future changes in ENSO teleconnections in the North Pacific/North America sector.</p><p>Precipitation over the equatorial Pacific associated with ENSO is projected to shift eastwards under global warming as a result of greater warming in the east Pacific, which reduces the barrier to convection as the warm pool expands eastwards. As a result, there is medium confidence (IPCC AR5 report) that ENSO teleconnections will shift eastwards in the North Pacific/North America sector. In the CMIP6 models, the present day teleconnection is relatively well simulated, with most models showing an anomalously deep Aleutian low and associated positive temperature anomalies over Alaska and northern North America in El Niño years. In the future warming simulations (we use abrupt-4xCO2, in which CO2 concentrations are immediately quadrupled from the global annual mean 1850 value), in agreement with the IPCC AR5 report, the North America teleconnection and associated circulation change is shifted eastwards in most models. However, it is also significantly weaker, with the result that the positive temperature anomalies in El Niño years over North America are much reduced. This weakening is seen both in models with a projected increase and projected decrease in the amplitude of future El Niño events. The mechanisms related to these projected changes, along with potential implications for future long range predictability over North America, will be discussed.</p>

scholarly journals A Five-Century Reconstruction of Hawaiian Islands Winter Rainfall

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (15) ◽  
pp. 5661-5674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry F. Diaz ◽  
Eugene R. Wahl ◽  
Eduardo Zorita ◽  
Thomas W. Giambelluca ◽  
Jon K. Eischeid
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
North Pacific Ocean ◽  
Hawaiian Islands ◽  
Winter Rainfall ◽  
The North ◽  
Instrumental Records ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract Few if any high-resolution (annually resolved) paleoclimate records are available for the Hawaiian Islands prior to ~1850 CE, after which some instrumental records start to become available. This paper shows how atmospheric teleconnection patterns between North America and the northeastern North Pacific (NNP) allow for reconstruction of Hawaiian Islands rainfall using remote proxy information from North America. Based on a newly available precipitation dataset for the state of Hawaii and observed and reconstructed December–February (DJF) sea level pressures (SLPs) in the North Pacific Ocean, the authors make use of a strong relationship between winter SLP variability in the northeast Pacific and corresponding DJF Hawaii rainfall variations to reconstruct and evaluate that season’s rainfall over the period 1500–2012 CE. A general drying trend, though with substantial decadal and longer-term variability, is evident, particularly during the last ~160 years. Hawaiian Islands rainfall exhibits strong modulation by El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), as well as in relation to Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO)-like variability. For significant periods of time, the reconstructed large-scale changes in the North Pacific SLP field described here and by construction the long-term decline in Hawaiian winter rainfall are broadly consistent with long-term changes in tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) based on ENSO reconstructions documented in several other studies, particularly over the last two centuries. Also noted are some rather large multidecadal fluctuations in rainfall (and hence in NNP SLP) in the eighteenth century of undetermined provenance.

scholarly journals Subtropical Forcing of Tropical Pacific Climate and Decadal ENSO Modulation

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (18) ◽  
pp. 4691-4709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Matei ◽  
Noel Keenlyside ◽  
Mojib Latif ◽  
Johann Jungclaus
Keyword(s):  
North Pacific ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Decadal Variability ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Ocean Dynamics ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Pacific

Abstract The relative impact of the subtropical North and South Pacific Oceans on the tropical Pacific climate mean state and variability is estimated using an ocean–atmosphere–sea ice coupled general circulation model. Tailored experiments are performed in which the model is forced by idealized sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the subtropics of both hemispheres. The main results of this study suggest that subtropical South Pacific climate variations play a dominant role in tropical Pacific decadal variability and in the decadal modulation of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In response to a 2°C warming in the subtropical South Pacific, the equatorial Pacific SST increases by about 0.6°C, approximately 65% larger than the change in the North Pacific experiment. The subtropics affect equatorial SST mainly through atmosphere–mixed layer interactions in the South Pacific experiments; the response is mostly accomplished within a decade. The “oceanic tunnel” dominates in the North Pacific experiments; the response takes at least 100 yr to be accomplished. Similar sensitivity experiments conducted with the stand-alone atmosphere model showed that both air–sea interactions and ocean dynamics are crucial in shaping the tropical climate response. The statistics of ENSO exhibit significant changes in amplitude and frequency in response to a warming/cooling of the subtropical South Pacific: a 2°C warming (cooling) of subtropical South Pacific SST reduces (increases) the interannual standard deviation by about 30% (20%) and shortens (lengthens) the ENSO period. The simulated changes in the equatorial zonal SST gradient are the main contributor to the modulation of ENSO variability. The simulated intensification (weakening) of the annual cycle in response to an enhanced warming (cooling) in subtropical South Pacific partly explains the shifts in frequency, but may also lead to a weaker (stronger) ENSO. The subtropical North Pacific thermal forcing did not change the statistical properties of ENSO as strongly.

Future Changes to El Niño Teleconnections over the North Pacific and North America

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-43
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Beverley ◽  
Matthew Collins ◽  
F. Hugo Lambert ◽  
Robin Chadwick
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
El Niño ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Positive Temperature ◽  
Central Pacific ◽  
Wave Source ◽  
The North ◽  
Precipitation Anomalies ◽  
The North Pacific

AbstractThe El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the leading mode of interannual climate variability and it exerts a strong influence on many remote regions of the world, for example in northern North America. Here, we examine future changes to the positive-phase ENSO teleconnection to the North Pacific/North America sector and investigate the mechanisms involved. We find that the positive temperature anomalies over Alaska and northern North America that are associated with an El Niño event in the present day are much weaker, or of the opposite sign, in the CMIP6 abrupt 4×CO2 experiments for almost all models (22 out of 26, of which 15 are statistically significant differences). This is largely related to changes to the anomalous circulation over the North Pacific, rather than differences in the equator-to-pole temperature gradient. Using a barotropic model, run with different background circulation basic states and Rossby wave source forcing patterns from the individual CMIP6 models, we find that changes to the forcing from the equatorial central Pacific precipitation anomalies are more important than changes in the global basic state background circulation. By further decomposing this forcing change into changes associated with the longitude and magnitude of ENSO precipitation anomalies, we demonstrate that the projected overall eastward shift of ENSO precipitation is the main driver of the temperature teleconnection change, rather than the increase in magnitude of El Niño precipitation anomalies which are, nevertheless, seen in the majority of models.

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