scholarly journals Asymmetry in the IOD and ENSO Teleconnection in a CMIP5 Model Ensemble and Its Relevance to Regional Rainfall

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (14) ◽  
pp. 5139-5149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Weller ◽  
Wenju Cai
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
El Nino ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Convective Heating ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Australian Climate ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Recent studies have shown that the impact of the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) on southern Australia occurs via equivalent barotropic Rossby wave trains triggered by convective heating in the tropical Indian Ocean. Furthermore, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influence on southern Australian climate is exerted through the same pathway during austral spring. It is also noted that positive phase [positive IOD (pIOD) and El Niño] events have a much larger impact associated with their respective skewness. These phenomena play a significant role in the region's rainfall reduction in recent decades, and it is essential that climate models used for future projections simulate these features. Here, the authors demonstrate that climate models do indeed simulate a greater climatic impact on Australia for pIOD events than for negative IOD (nIOD) events, but this asymmetric impact is distorted by an exaggerated influence of La Niña emanating from the Pacific. The distortion results from biases in the Pacific in two respects. First, the tropical and extratropical response to La Niña is situated unrealistically too far westward and hence too close to Australia, leading to an overly strong impact on southeast Australia that shows up through the nIOD–La Niña coherence. Second, the majority of models simulate a positive sea surface temperature skewness in the eastern Pacific that is too weak, overestimating the impact of La Niña relative to that of El Niño. As such, the impact of the positive asymmetry in the IOD only becomes apparent when the impact of ENSO is removed. This model bias needs to be taken into account when analyzing projections of regional Australian climate change.

scholarly journals Droughts and floods over the upper catchment of the Blue Nile and their connections to the timing of El Niño and La Niña events

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1239-1249 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. H. Zaroug ◽  
E. A. B. Eltahir ◽  
F. Giorgi
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Blue Nile ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Extreme Flood ◽  
Droughts And Floods ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The Blue Nile originates from Lake Tana in the Ethiopian Highlands and contributes about 60–69% of the main Nile discharge. Previous studies investigated the relationship of sea surface temperature (SST) in the Pacific Ocean (Niño 3.4 region) to occurrence of meteorological and hydrological droughts in the Nile Basin. In this paper we focus on the dependence of occurrence of droughts and floods in the upper catchment of the Blue Nile on the timing of El Niño and La Niña events. Different events start at different times of the year and follow each other, exhibiting different patterns and sequences. Here we study the impact of these timing and temporal patterns on the Blue Nile droughts and floods. The comparison between the discharge measurements (1965–2012) at the outlet of the upper catchment of the Blue Nile and the El Niño index shows that when an El Niño event is followed by a La Niña event, there is a 67% chance for occurrence of an extreme flood. Furthermore, we also found that 83% of El Niño events starting in April–June resulted in droughts in the upper catchment of the Blue Nile. Although the current study is limited by the reduced number of samples, we propose that observations as well as global model forecasts of SST during this season could be used in seasonal forecasting of the Blue Nile flow.

scholarly journals Austral Summer Teleconnections of Indo-Pacific Variability: Their Nonlinearity and Impacts on Australian Climate

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 2796-2810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenju Cai ◽  
Peter van Rensch
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Wave Train ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Negative Phase ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In austral summer, El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) covaries with the Indian Ocean Basin Mode (IOBM) and with the southern annular mode (SAM). The present study addresses how the IOBM and the SAM modulate the impact of ENSO on Australia. The authors show that the modulating effect of the SAM is limited; in particular, the SAM does not modify the ENSO teleconnection pattern. However, the IOBM extends ENSO-induced convection anomalies westward over northern Australia and over the eastern Indian Ocean, whereby extending the ENSO tropical teleconnection to the northwest of Australia. The IOBM also generates an equivalent-barotropic Rossby wave train through convection anomalies over northern Australia. The wave train shares an anomaly center over the Tasman Sea latitudes with the Pacific–South American (PSA) pattern, shifting the anomaly center of the PSA pattern to within a closer proximity to Australia. There is a strong asymmetry in the IOBM modulating effect. During an IOBM negative phase, which tends to coincide with La Niña events, the rainfall increase is far greater than the reduction during a positive IOBM phase, which tends to coincide with El Niño events. This modulation asymmetry is consistent with an asymmetry in the ENSO–rainfall teleconnection over Australia, in which the La Niña–rainfall teleconnection is stronger than the El Niño–rainfall teleconnection. This asymmetric ENSO–rainfall teleconnection ensures a higher coherence of northern Australia convective anomalies with La Niña or with a negative phase of the IOBM, hence a greater modification of the PSA pattern, underpinning the asymmetric modulating role of the IOBM.

scholarly journals Asymmetry in ENSO Teleconnection with Regional Rainfall, Its Multidecadal Variability, and Impact

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (18) ◽  
pp. 4944-4955 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenju Cai ◽  
Peter van Rensch ◽  
Tim Cowan ◽  
Arnold Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Summer Rainfall ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Multidecadal Variability ◽  
La Nina ◽  
Rainfall Reduction ◽  
The Impact

Abstract An asymmetry, and its multidecadal variability, in a rainfall teleconnection with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are described. Further, the breakdown of this relationship since 1980 is offered as a cause for a rainfall reduction in an ENSO-affected region, southeast Queensland (SEQ). There, austral summer rainfall has been declining since around the 1980s, but the associated process is not understood. It is demonstrated that the rainfall reduction is not simulated by the majority of current climate models forced with anthropogenic forcing factors. Examination shows that ENSO is a rainfall-generating mechanism for the region because of an asymmetry in its impact: the La Niña–rainfall relationship is statistically significant, as SEQ summer rainfall increases with La Niña amplitude; by contrast, the El Niño–induced rainfall reductions do not have a statistically significant relationship with El Niño amplitude. Since 1980, this asymmetry no longer operates, and La Niña events no longer induce a rainfall increase, leading to the observed SEQ rainfall reduction. A similar asymmetric rainfall teleconnection with ENSO Modoki exists and shares the same temporal evolutions. This breakdown is caused by an eastward shift in the Walker circulation and the convection center near Australia’s east coast, in association with a post-1980 positive phase of the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO). Such a breakdown occurred before 1950, indicating that multidecadal variability alone could potentially be responsible for the recent SEQ rainfall decline. An aggregation of outputs from climate models to distill the impact of climate change suggests that the asymmetry and the breakdown may not be generated by climate change, although most models do not perform well in simulating the ENSO–rainfall teleconnection over the SEQ region.

scholarly journals Wind-Driven Response of the Northern Indian Ocean to Climate Extremes*

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 2978-2993 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommy G. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Bay Of Bengal ◽  
El Niño ◽  
Arabian Sea ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Northern Indian Ocean ◽  
La Nina

Abstract Composites of Florida State University winds (1970–99) for four different climate scenarios are used to force an Indian Ocean model. In addition to the mean climatology, the cases include La Niña, El Niño, and the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD). The differences in upper-ocean water mass exchanges between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are investigated and show that, during El Niño and IOD years, the average clockwise Indian Ocean circulation is intensified, while it is weakened during La Niña years. As a consequence, high-salinity water export from the Arabian Sea into the Bay of Bengal is enhanced during El Niño and IOD years, while transport of low-salinity waters from the Bay of Bengal into the Arabian Sea is enhanced during La Niña years. This provides a venue for interannual salinity variations in the northern Indian Ocean.

The Impact of ENSO on Wave Breaking and Southern Annular Mode Events

2010 ◽  
Vol 67 (9) ◽  
pp. 2854-2870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Gong ◽  
Steven B. Feldstein ◽  
Dehai Luo
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
Wave Breaking ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Annular Mode ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Background Flow ◽  
Austral Spring ◽  
Annular Mode ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study examines the relationship between intraseasonal southern annular mode (SAM) events and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) using daily 40-yr ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-40) data. The data coverage spans the years 1979–2002, for the austral spring and summer seasons. The focus of this study is on the question of why positive SAM events dominate during La Niña and negative SAM events during El Niño. A composite analysis is performed on the zonal-mean zonal wind, Eliassen–Palm fluxes, and two diagnostic variables: the meridional potential vorticity gradient, a zonal-mean quantity that is used to estimate the likelihood of wave breaking, and the wave breaking index (WBI), which is used to evaluate the strength of the wave breaking. The results of this investigation suggest that the background zonal-mean flow associated with La Niña (El Niño) is preconditioned for strong (weak) anticyclonic wave breaking on the equatorward side of the eddy-driven jet, the type of wave breaking that is found to drive positive (negative) SAM events. A probability density function analysis of the WBI, for both La Niña and El Niño, indicates that strong anticyclonic wave breaking takes place much more frequently during La Niña and weak anticyclonic wave breaking during El Niño. It is suggested that these wave breaking characteristics, and their dependency on the background flow, can explain the strong preference for SAM events of one phase during ENSO. The analysis also shows that austral spring SAM events that coincide with ENSO are preceded by strong stratospheric SAM anomalies and then are followed by a prolonged period of wave breaking that lasts for approximately 30 days. These findings suggest that the ENSO background flow also plays a role in the excitation of stratospheric SAM anomalies and that the presence of these stratospheric SAM anomalies in turn excites and then maintains the tropospheric SAM anomalies via a positive eddy feedback.

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.

scholarly journals The Impact of Obliquity Change on El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and La Niña Climate Episodes

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C. Rivera
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Climate Model ◽  
La Niña ◽  
El Niño Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Impact

An alternative physical mechanism is proposed to describe the occurrence of the episodic El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and La Nina climatic phenomena. This is based on the earthquake-perturbed obliquity change (EPOCH) model previously discovered as a major cause of the global climate change problem. Massive quakes impart a very strong oceanic force that can move the moon which in turn pulls the earth’s axis and change the planetary obliquity. Analysis of the annual geomagnetic north-pole shift and global seismic data revealed this previously undiscovered force. Using a higher obliquity in the global climate model EdGCM and constant greenhouse gas forcing showed that the seismic-induced polar motion and associated enhanced obliquity could be the major mechanism governing the mysterious climate anomalies attributed to El Nino and La Nina cycles.

scholarly journals EL NINO, LA NINA, DAN PENAWARAN PANGAN DI JAWA, INDONESIA

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 257
Author(s):  
Arini Wahyu Utami ◽  
Jamhari Jamhari ◽  
Suhatmini Hardyastuti
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Regression Function ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Impact

Paddy and maize are two important food crops in Indonesia and mainly produced in Java Island. This research aimed to know the impact of El Nino and La Nina on paddy and maize farmer’s supply in Java. Cross sectional data from four provinces in Java was combined with time series data during 1987-2006. Paddy supply was estimated using log model, while maize supply used autoregressive model; each was estimated using two types of regression function. First, it included dummy variable of El Nino and La Nina to know their influence into paddy and maize supply. Second, Southern Oscillation Index was used to analyze the supply changing when El Nino or La Nina occur. The result showed that El Nino and La Nina did not influence paddy supply, while La Nina influenced maize supply in Java. Maize supply increased when La Nina occurred.

scholarly journals Dynamics for El Niño-La Niña asymmetry constrain equatorial-Pacific warming pattern

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiya Hayashi ◽  
Fei-Fei Jin ◽  
Malte F. Stuecker
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Equatorial Pacific ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Nonlinear Dynamical ◽  
La Nina ◽  
Warming Pattern ◽  
Enso Asymmetry

Abstract The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) results from the instability of and also modulates the strength of the tropical-Pacific cold tongue. While climate models reproduce observed ENSO amplitude relatively well, the majority still simulates its asymmetry between warm (El Niño) and cold (La Niña) phases very poorly. The causes of this major deficiency and consequences thereof are so far not well understood. Analysing both reanalyses and climate models, we here show that simulated ENSO asymmetry is largely proportional to subsurface nonlinear dynamical heating (NDH) along the equatorial Pacific thermocline. Most climate models suffer from too-weak NDH and too-weak linear dynamical ocean-atmosphere coupling. Nevertheless, a sizeable subset (about 1/3) having relatively realistic NDH shows that El Niño-likeness of the equatorial-Pacific warming pattern is linearly related to ENSO amplitude change in response to greenhouse warming. Therefore, better simulating the dynamics of ENSO asymmetry potentially reduces uncertainty in future projections.

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