scholarly journals Variations in the Three-Dimensional Structure of the Atmospheric Circulation with Different Flavors of El Niño

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 2978-2991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin E. Trenberth ◽  
Lesley Smith
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Atmospheric Circulation ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Positive Sign ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Level Pressure ◽  
The Tropics

Abstract Two rather different flavors of El Niño are revealed when the full three-dimensional spatial structure of the temperature field and atmospheric circulation monthly mean anomalies is analyzed using the Japanese Reanalysis (JRA-25) temperatures from 1979 through 2004 for a core region of the tropics from 30°N to 30°S, with results projected globally onto various other fields. The first two empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) both have primary relationships to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) but feature rather different vertical and spatial structures. By construction the two patterns are orthogonal, but their signatures in sea level pressure, precipitation, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), and tropospheric diabatic heating are quite similar. Moreover, they are significantly related, with EOF-2 leading EOF-1 by about 4–6 months, indicating that they play complementary roles in the evolution of ENSO events, and with each mode playing greater or lesser roles in different events and seasons. The dominant pattern (EOF-1) in its positive sign features highly coherent zonal mean warming throughout the tropical troposphere from 30°N to 30°S that increases in magnitude with height to 200 hPa, drops to zero about 100 hPa at the tropopause, and has reverse sign to 30 hPa with peak values at 70 hPa. It correlates strongly with global mean surface temperatures. EOF-2 emphasizes off-equatorial centers of action and strong Rossby wave temperature signatures that are coherent throughout the troposphere, with the strongest values in the Pacific that extend into the extratropics and a sign reversal at and above 150 hPa. Near the surface, both patterns feature boomerang-shaped opposite temperatures in the western tropical and subtropical Pacific, with similar sea level pressure patterns, but with EOF-1 more focused in equatorial regions. Both patterns are strongest during the boreal winter half-year when anomalous precipitation in the tropics and associated latent heating drive teleconnections throughout the world. For El Niño in northern winter EOF-1 has more precipitation in the eastern tropical Pacific, while EOF-2 has much drier conditions over northern Australia and the Indian Ocean. In northern summer, the main differences are in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Differences in teleconnections suggest great sensitivity to small changes in forcings in association with seasonal variations in the mean state.

Two types of El Niño and extratropical sea-level pressure variations

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (22) ◽  
pp. 5443-5456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanjiao Song ◽  
Qing Dong ◽  
Cunjin Xue ◽  
Jin Sha
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Level Pressure

scholarly journals Relationships between Extratropical Sea Level Pressure Variations and the Central Pacific and Eastern Pacific Types of ENSO

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 708-720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin-Yi Yu ◽  
Seon Tae Kim
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Nodal Point ◽  
Eastern Pacific ◽  
Central Pacific ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Level Pressure ◽  
Sst Anomalies

Abstract This study examines the linkages between leading patterns of interannual sea level pressure (SLP) variability over the extratropical Pacific (20°–60°N) and the eastern Pacific (EP) and central Pacific (CP) types of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) mode of the extratropical SLP anomalies represents variations of the Aleutian low, and the second EOF mode represents the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) and is characterized by a meridional SLP anomaly dipole with a nodal point near 50°N. It is shown that a fraction of the first SLP mode can be excited by both the EP and CP types of ENSO. The SLP response to the EP type is stronger and more immediate. The tropical–extratropical teleconnection appears to act more slowly for the CP ENSO. During the decay phase of EP events, the associated extratropical SLP anomalies shift from the first SLP mode to the second SLP mode. As the second SLP mode grows, subtropical SST anomalies are induced beneath via surface heat flux anomalies. The SST anomalies persist after the peak in strength of the second SLP mode, likely because of the seasonal footprinting mechanism, and lead to the development of the CP type of ENSO. This study shows that the CP ENSO is an extratropically excited mode of tropical Pacific variability and also suggests that the decay of an EP type of ENSO can lead to the onset of a CP type of ENSO with the aid of the NPO. This extratropical linking mechanism appears to be at work during the 1972, 1982, and 1997 strong El Niño events, which were all EP events and were all followed by strong CP La Niña events after the NPO was excited in the extratropics. This study concludes that extratropical SLP variations play an important role in exciting the CP type of ENSO and in linking the transitions from the EP to CP events.

Linking a sea level pressure anomaly dipole over North America to the central Pacific El Niño

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1321-1339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruiqiang Ding ◽  
Jianping Li ◽  
Yu-heng Tseng ◽  
Cheng Sun ◽  
Fei Zheng
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Central Pacific ◽  
Central Pacific El Niño ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Level Pressure ◽  
Pressure Anomaly

El Niño–Southern Oscillation Sea Level Pressure Anomalies in the Western Pacific: Why Are They There?*

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (22) ◽  
pp. 8860-8872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Ji ◽  
J. David Neelin ◽  
C. Roberto Mechoso
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Western Pacific ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Level Pressure ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
The Western Pacific ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract Although sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies in the western Pacific have long been recognized as an integral part of the classic Southern Oscillation pattern associated with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), there is an unresolved question regarding the dynamics that maintain these anomalies. Traditional studies of the ENSO response in the tropics assume a single deep baroclinic mode associated with the tropospheric temperature anomalies. However, the SLP anomalies in the western Pacific are spatially separated from the baroclinic signal in the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis, CMIP5 models, and an intermediate complexity model [a quasi-equilibrium tropical circulation model (QTCM)]. Separation of ENSO SLP anomalies in the tropical Pacific into baroclinic and barotropic components indicates that the barotropic component contributes throughout the tropics and constitutes the primary contribution in the western Pacific. To demonstrate the roles of baroclinic and barotropic modes in ENSO teleconnections within the tropics, a series of QTCM experiments is performed, where anomalies in the interactions between baroclinic and barotropic modes are suppressed over increasingly wider latitudinal bands in the tropical Pacific. If this suppression is done in the 15°N–15°S band, the pressure signals in the western Pacific are only partly removed, whereas if it is done in the 30°N–30°S band, the anomalies in the western Pacific are almost entirely removed. This suggests the following pathway: interactions with SST anomalies create the baroclinic response in the central and eastern Pacific, but baroclinic–barotropic interactions, arising substantially in the subtropical Pacific, generate a barotropic response that yields the SLP anomalies in the western Pacific.

scholarly journals Recent El-Nino classification and associated climate response comparisons for the Atlantic-Eurasian region

2017 ◽  
pp. 94-100
Author(s):  
A.S. Lubkov ◽  
◽  
E.N. Voskresenskaya ◽  
O.V. Marchukova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Climate Response ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Climate Anomalies ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Eurasian Region

Comparative study of El Nino classification after different authors results and approaches. The preferences of objective spatio-temporal classification which done earlier by the authors of present paper were shown for climate manifestation study over the Atlanic-Eurasian region. Using of NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data on sea level pressure in 1948-2016 the El-Nino types manifestations were estimated in Azor high, Iceland low and Siberian anticyclone. On this basis, appropriate prognostic estimates of typical climate anomalies in the Atlantic-Eurasian region are made. Next, the previous predictions of typical climate anomalies in the Atlantic-Eurasian region associated with El Nino types were done in the paper.

scholarly journals Does sea level pressure modulate the dynamic and thermodynamic forcing in the tropical Indian Ocean?

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1991-2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Nisha ◽  
P. M. Muraleedharan ◽  
M. G. Keerthi ◽  
P. V. Sathe ◽  
M. Ravichandran
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Tropical Indian Ocean ◽  
Sea Level Pressure ◽  
Level Pressure

scholarly journals A Simple Analytical Model for Understanding the Formation of Sea Surface Temperature Patterns under Global Warming*

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (22) ◽  
pp. 8413-8421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Zhang ◽  
Tim Li
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
The Tropical Pacific

Abstract How sea surface temperature (SST) changes under global warming is critical for future climate projection because SST change affects atmospheric circulation and rainfall. Robust features derived from 17 models of phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) include a much greater warming in high latitudes than in the tropics, an El Niño–like warming over the tropical Pacific and Atlantic, and a dipole pattern in the Indian Ocean. However, the physical mechanism responsible for formation of such warming patterns remains open. A simple theoretical model is constructed to reveal the cause of the future warming patterns. The result shows that a much greater polar, rather than tropical, warming depends primarily on present-day mean SST and surface latent heat flux fields, and atmospheric longwave radiation feedback associated with cloud change further enhances this warming contrast. In the tropics, an El Niño–like warming over the Pacific and Atlantic arises from a similar process, while cloud feedback resulting from different cloud regimes between east and west ocean basins also plays a role. A dipole warming over the equatorial Indian Ocean is a response to weakened Walker circulation in the tropical Pacific.

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