scholarly journals Influence of El Niño on Midtropospheric CO2 from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder and Model

2013 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xun Jiang ◽  
Jingqian Wang ◽  
Edward T. Olsen ◽  
Maochang Liang ◽  
Thomas S. Pagano ◽  
...  

Abstract The authors investigate the influence of El Niño on midtropospheric CO2 from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Model for Ozone and Related Chemical Tracers, version 2 (MOZART-2). AIRS midtropospheric CO2 data are used to study the temporal and spatial variability of CO2 in response to El Niño. CO2 differences between the central and western Pacific Ocean correlate well with the Southern Oscillation index. To reveal the temporal and spatial variability of the El Niño signal in the AIRS midtropospheric CO2, a multiple regression method is applied to the CO2 data from September 2002 to February 2011. There is more (less) midtropospheric CO2 in the central Pacific and less (more) midtropospheric CO2 in the western Pacific during El Niño (La Niña) events. Similar results are seen in the MOZART-2 convolved midtropospheric CO2, although the El Niño signal in the MOZART-2 is weaker than that in the AIRS data.

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 966-983 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G. Marshall ◽  
O. Alves ◽  
H. H. Hendon

Abstract The ocean dynamics of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) and its interaction with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are assessed using a flux-corrected coupled model experiment from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The model demonstrates the correct oceanic Kelvin wave response to the MJO-related westerly winds in the western Pacific. Although there may be a role for the MJO in influencing the strength of El Niño, its impact is difficult to separate from that of strong heat content preconditioning of ENSO. Hence, the MJO–ENSO relationship is assessed starting from a background state of low heat content anomalies in the western Pacific that are also characteristic of recent observed El Niño events. The model shows a strong relationship between ENSO and the MJO near the peak of El Niño. At this time, the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly is largest in the central Pacific, and it is difficult to separate cause and effect. Near the onset of El Niño, however, when Pacific Ocean SST anomalies are near zero, an increase in MJO activity is associated with Kelvin wave activity and stronger subsequent ENSO warming. A significant increase in the number of MJO events, rather than the strength of individual MJO events, leads to stronger eastern Pacific warming; the MJO appears not to be responsible for the occurrence of El Niño itself, but, rather, is important for influencing its development thus. This research supports a role for downwelling oceanic Kelvin waves and subsequent deepening of the thermocline in contributing to eastern Pacific warming during the onset of El Niño.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (19) ◽  
pp. 7561-7575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoo-Geun Ham ◽  
Yerim Jeong ◽  
Jong-Seong Kug

Abstract This study uses archives from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) to investigate changes in independency between two types of El Niño events caused by greenhouse warming. In the observations, the independency between cold tongue (CT) and warm pool (WP) El Niño events is distinctively increased in recent decades. The simulated changes in independency between the two types of El Niño events according to the CMIP5 models are quite diverse, although the observed features are simulated to some extent in several climate models. It is found that the climatological change after global warming is an essential factor in determining the changes in independency between the two types of El Niño events. For example, the independency between these events is increased after global warming when the climatological precipitation is increased mainly over the equatorial central Pacific. This climatological precipitation increase extends convective response to the east, particularly for CT El Niño events, which leads to greater differences in the spatial pattern between the two types of El Niño events to increase the El Niño independency. On the contrary, in models with decreased independency between the two types of El Niño events after global warming, climatological precipitation is increased mostly over the western Pacific. This confines the atmospheric response to the western Pacific in both El Niño events; therefore, the similarity between them is increased after global warming. In addition to the changes in the climatological state after global warming, a possible connection of the changes in the El Niño independency with the historical mean state is discussed in this paper.


2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (10) ◽  
pp. 3097-3112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina S. Virts ◽  
John M. Wallace

Abstract Cloud fields based on the first three years of data from the Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission are used to investigate the relationship between cirrus within the tropical tropopause transition layer (TTL) and the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO), the annual cycle, and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The TTL cirrus signature observed in association with the MJO resembles convectively induced, mixed Kelvin–Rossby wave solutions above the Pacific warm pool region. This signature is centered to the east of the peak convection and propagates eastward more rapidly than the convection; it exhibits a pronounced eastward tilt with height, suggestive of downward phase propagation and upward energy dispersion. A cirrus maximum is observed over equatorial Africa and South America when the enhanced MJO-related convection enters the western Pacific. Tropical-mean TTL cirrus is modulated by the MJO, with more than twice as much TTL cirrus fractional coverage equatorward of 10° latitude when the enhanced convection enters the Pacific than a few weeks earlier, when the convection is over the Indian Ocean. The annual cycle in cirrus clouds around the base of the TTL is equatorially asymmetric, with more cirrus observed in the summer hemisphere. Higher in the TTL, the annual cycle in cirrus clouds is more equatorially symmetric, with a maximum in the boreal winter throughout most of the tropics. The ENSO signature in TTL cirrus is marked by a zonal shift of the peak cloudiness toward the central Pacific during El Niño and toward the Maritime Continent during La Niña.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (24) ◽  
pp. 10123-10139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan-Yang Wang ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie ◽  
Yu Kosaka

El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) peaks in boreal winter but its impact on Indo-western Pacific climate persists for another two seasons. Key ocean–atmosphere interaction processes for the ENSO effect are investigated using the Pacific Ocean–Global Atmosphere (POGA) experiment with a coupled general circulation model, where tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies are restored to follow observations while the atmosphere and oceans are fully coupled elsewhere. The POGA shows skills in simulating the ENSO-forced warming of the tropical Indian Ocean and an anomalous anticyclonic circulation pattern over the northwestern tropical Pacific in the post–El Niño spring and summer. The 10-member POGA ensemble allows decomposing Indo-western Pacific variability into the ENSO forced and ENSO-unrelated (internal) components. Internal variability is comparable to the ENSO forcing in magnitude and independent of ENSO amplitude and phase. Random internal variability causes apparent decadal modulations of ENSO correlations over the Indo-western Pacific, which are high during epochs of high ENSO variance. This is broadly consistent with instrumental observations over the past 130 years as documented in recent studies. Internal variability features a sea level pressure pattern that extends into the north Indian Ocean and is associated with coherent SST anomalies from the Arabian Sea to the western Pacific, suggestive of ocean–atmosphere coupling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Wan-Jiao Song ◽  
Qi-Guang Wang

The summer precipitation produced by the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) is significantly affecting agriculture and socioeconomics. Based on the Precipitation Reconstruction dataset in East China from 1950 to 2017, we investigate the spatiotemporal variations of summer precipitation, influencing environmental factors and their relation with the EASM and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) in both central Pacific (CP) El Niño developing and decaying years. Results indicate the following: (1) The evolutions of CP El Niño events modulate the summer precipitation anomalies in East China. In the cool PDO phase, CP El Niño causes enhanced precipitation anomalies in the decaying years but less precipitation anomalies in the developing years, and vice versa for the warm PDO phase. (2) Atmospheric circulation anomalies drive the moisture transportation and combine the motion of western Pacific subtropical high resulting in the variation of precipitation patterns. Anomalous cyclone over the western North Pacific and the sustained Western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH) are favorable for the increment of summer precipitation. (3) The different CP El Niño-EASM relationship is caused by the influences of PDO on the evolution of CP El Niño. CP El Niño develops slowly (decays rapidly) and is associated with rapidly developing (slowly decaying) anomalous warming in the north Indian Ocean during the developing (decaying) years.


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.


2005 ◽  
Vol 133 (5) ◽  
pp. 1343-1352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jong-Seong Kug ◽  
In-Sik Kang ◽  
Jong-Ghap Jhun

Abstract To improve forecasting skills in the western Pacific sea surface temperature (SST), the authors utilized and modified an intermediate El Niño prediction model. The original model does not have the major SST thermodynamics for western Pacific SST variability, so it cannot simulate interannual variation in the western Pacific correctly. Therefore, the authors have introduced some modifications, such as heat flux and vertical mixing, into the dynamical model in order to capture SST thermodynamics more realistically. The modified model has better forecast skill than the original one, not only for the western Pacific but also for the eastern-central Pacific. The model has predictive skill up to 6-months lead time as judged by a correlation exceeding 0.5.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 3461-3472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shang-Ping Xie ◽  
Zhen-Qiang Zhou

The spatial structure of atmospheric anomalies associated with El Niño–Southern Oscillation varies with season because of the seasonal variations in sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly pattern and in the climatological basic state. The latter effect is demonstrated using an atmospheric model forced with a time-invariant pattern of El Niño warming over the equatorial Pacific. The seasonal modulation is most pronounced over the north Indian Ocean to northwest Pacific where the monsoonal winds vary from northeasterly in winter to southwesterly in summer. Specifically, the constant El Niño run captures the abrupt transition from a summer cyclonic to winter anticyclonic anomalous circulation over the northwest Pacific, in support of the combination mode idea that emphasizes nonlinear interactions of equatorial Pacific SST forcing and the climatological seasonal cycle. In post–El Niño summers when equatorial Pacific warming has dissipated, SST anomalies over the Indo–northwest Pacific Oceans dominate and anchor the coherent persisting anomalous anticyclonic circulation. A conceptual model is presented that incorporates the combination mode in the existing framework of regional Indo–western Pacific Ocean coupling.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 1919-1934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiong Chen ◽  
Jian Ling ◽  
Chongyin Li

Abstract Evolution characteristics of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) during the eastern Pacific (EP) and central Pacific (CP) types of El Niño have been investigated. MJO activities are strengthened over the western Pacific during the predeveloping and developing phases of EP El Niño, but suppressed during the mature and decaying phases. In contrast, MJO activities do not show a clear relationship with CP El Niño before their occurrence over the western Pacific, but they increase over the central Pacific during the mature and decaying phases of CP El Niño. Lag correlation analyses further confirm that MJO activities over the western Pacific in boreal spring and early summer are closely related to EP El Niño up to 2–11 months later, but not for CP El Niño. EP El Niño tends to weaken the MJO and lead to a much shorter range of its eastward propagation. Anomalous descending motions over the Maritime Continent and western Pacific related to El Niño can suppress convection and moisture flux convergence there and weaken MJO activities over these regions during the mature phase of both types of El Niño. MJO activities over the western Pacific are much weaker in EP El Niño due to the stronger anomalous descending motions. Furthermore, the MJO propagates more continuously and farther eastward during CP El Niño because of robust moisture convergence over the central Pacific, which provides adequate moisture for the development of MJO convection.


2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (19) ◽  
pp. 7720-7733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Klotzbach ◽  
Eric S. Blake

Abstract Both El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) have been documented in previous research to impact tropical cyclone (TC) activity around the globe. This study examines the relationship of each mode individually along with a combined index on tropical cyclone activity in the north-central Pacific. Approximately twice as many tropical cyclones form in the north-central Pacific in El Niño years compared with La Niña years. These differences are attributed to a variety of factors, including warmer sea surface temperatures, lower sea level pressures, increased midlevel moisture, and anomalous midlevel ascent in El Niño years. When the convectively enhanced phase of the MJO is located over the eastern and central tropical Pacific, the north-central Pacific tends to have more tropical cyclone activity, likely because of reduced vertical wind shear, lower sea level pressures, and increased vertical motion. The convectively enhanced phase of the MJO is also responsible for most of the TCs that undergo rapid intensification in the north-central Pacific. A combined MJO–ENSO index that is primarily associated with anomalous rising motion over the tropical eastern Pacific has an even stronger relationship with north-central Pacific TCs, as well as rapid intensification, than either individually.


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