scholarly journals Modulation of the Relationship between ENSO and Its Combination Mode by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (11) ◽  
pp. 4679-4695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Geng ◽  
Wenjun Zhang ◽  
Fei-Fei Jin ◽  
Malte F. Stuecker ◽  
Aaron F. Z. Levine
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Enso Events ◽  
Combination Mode ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractRecent studies demonstrated the existence of a conspicuous atmospheric combination mode (C-mode) originating from nonlinear interactions between El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific warm pool annual cycle (AC). Here we find that the C-mode exhibits prominent decadal amplitude variations during the ENSO decaying boreal spring season. It is revealed that the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) can largely explain this waxing and waning in amplitude. A robust positive correlation between ENSO and the C-mode is detected during a negative AMO phase but not during a positive phase. Similar results can also be found in the relationship of ENSO with 1) the western North Pacific (WNP) anticyclone and 2) spring precipitation over southern China, both of which are closely associated with the C-mode. We suggest that ENSO property changes due to an AMO modulation play a crucial role in determining these decadal shifts. During a positive AMO phase, ENSO events are distinctly weaker than those in an AMO negative phase. In addition, El Niño events concurrent with a positive AMO phase tend to exhibit a westward-shifted sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly pattern. These SST characteristics during the positive AMO phase are both not conducive to the development of the meridionally asymmetric C-mode atmospheric circulation pattern and thus reduce the ENSO/C-mode correlation on decadal time scales. These observations can be realistically reproduced by a coupled general circulation model (CGCM) experiment in which North Atlantic SSTs are nudged to reproduce a 50-yr sinusoidally varying AMO evolution. Our conclusion carries important implications for understanding seasonally modulated ENSO dynamics and multiscale climate impacts over East Asia.

scholarly journals Extratropical Influences on the El Niño–Southern Oscillation through the Late Quaternary

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 788-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew B. G. Bush
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Linear Stability Theory ◽  
El Niño Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
Enso Events

Abstract A sequence of numerical simulations with a coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model configured for particular times during the late Quaternary shows that simulated El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events decrease in frequency from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to today, in accord with linear stability theory, but increase in amplitude. Diagnostic analyses indicate that altered momentum fluxes from midlatitude eddy activity caused by changes in orbital forcing (in the Holocene) and topographic forcing (at the LGM) regulate the strength of climatological easterlies and therefore affect both the tropical mean state and the characteristics of interannual variability. The fact that climatic teleconnections associated with paleo-ENSO are fundamentally different during these times suggests a way in which to reconcile some of the existing discrepancies amongst interpretations of proxy records and numerical paleoclimate simulations.

scholarly journals Projected Increase in Fast-Growing and Slow-Dissipating El Niño Events in the 21st Century

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hosmay Lopez ◽  
Sang-Ki Lee ◽  
Dongmin Kim ◽  
Andrew Wittenberg ◽  
Sang-Wook Yeh
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Fast Growing ◽  
El Niño Events ◽  
El Nino Events

Abstract Future changes in the seasonal evolution of El Niño - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during the onset and decay phases have received little attention by the research community. This work investigates the projected changes in the spatio-temporal evolution of El Niño events in the 21st Century (21C) using a large ensemble simulation of a couple general circulation model under anthropogenic forcing. Here we show that El Niño is projected to (1) initiate sooner in boreal spring, (2) to grow at a faster rate, (3) to persist longer over the eastern and far eastern Pacific, and (4) to have a broader impact on remote teleconnections. Significant changes in the tropical Pacific mean state, dominant feedback processes, and a projected increase in stochastic westerly wind burst forcing largely explain the fast growing and slow dissipating El Niño in the late 21C. Important implications of these findings are that the global climate impacts are projected to become more significant and persistent, owing to the extended persistence of El Niño.

scholarly journals El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and global warming

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 95-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Nyenzi ◽  
P. F. Lefale
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Enso Events ◽  
Detailed Assessment ◽  
Warming World

Abstract. It is widely accepted by the international scientific community that human activities have increased atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) and aerosols since the pre-industrial era. This increase has contributed to most of the warming (0.6±0.2°C) observed over the 20th century, land areas warming more than the oceans, with the 1990s very likely to be the warmest decade of the 20th century (IPCC, 2001). How this warming influences the occurrence, severity and frequency of ENSO episodes remains highly uncertain. The IPCC (2001) assessment of the scientific literature found insufficient evidence to suggest any direct attribution between increase in ENSO events that occurred in the last 20 to 30 years of the 20th century and global warming (IPCC, 2001). However, assessments carried out since then (e.g. IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), in preparations) suggest El Niño events have become more frequent, persistent and intense during the last 20 to 30 years compared to the previous 100 years. Attribution to global warming, however, remains highly uncertain. Efforts to simulate and model past, present and future behaviour of ENSO under a warming world due to enhanced GHG concentrations produce conflicting results. Since substantial internally-generated variability of ENSO behaviour on multi-decadal to century timescales occurs in long, unforced atmospheric-oceanic general circulation model (AOGCM) simulations, the attribution of past and future changes in ENSO amplitude and frequency to external forcing like GHG concentrations cannot be made with certainty. Such attribution would require extensive use of ensemble climate experiments or long experiments with stabilised GHG forcing. Although there are now better ENSO simulations in AOGCM, further model improvements are needed to simulate a more realistic Pacific climatology and seasonal cycle of the key modes influencing the climate of the region, as well as more realistic ENSO variability. More research is needed to further enhance scientific understanding of possible teleconnections between ENSO and global warming. It is worth noting the IPCC AR4 due to be release in September 2007, would provide a more detailed assessment of ENSO and global warming than what is being covered in this paper.

scholarly journals Links between Tropical Pacific SST and Cholera Incidence in Bangladesh: Role of the Eastern and Central Tropical Pacific

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (18) ◽  
pp. 4647-4663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Cash ◽  
Xavier Rodó ◽  
James L. Kinter
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Physical Mechanism ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Tropical Pacific ◽  
Bacterial Disease ◽  
Monsoon Circulation

Abstract Recent studies arising from both statistical analysis and dynamical disease models indicate that there is a link between incidence of cholera, a paradigmatic waterborne bacterial disease (WBD) endemic to Bangladesh, and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, a physical mechanism explaining this relationship has not yet been established. A regionally coupled, or “pacemaker,” configuration of the Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies atmospheric general circulation model is used to investigate links between sea surface temperature in the central and eastern tropical Pacific and the regional climate of Bangladesh. It is found that enhanced precipitation tends to follow winter El Niño events in both the model and observations, providing a plausible physical mechanism by which ENSO could influence cholera in Bangladesh. The enhanced precipitation in the model arises from a modification of the summer monsoon circulation over India and Bangladesh. Westerly wind anomalies over land to the west of Bangladesh lead to increased convergence in the zonal wind field and hence increased moisture convergence and rainfall. This change in circulation results from the tropics-wide warming in the model following a winter El Niño event. These results suggest that improved forecasting of cholera incidence may be possible through the use of climate predictions.

scholarly journals Extended ENSO Predictions Using a Fully Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Model

2008 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing-Jia Luo ◽  
Sebastien Masson ◽  
Swadhin K. Behera ◽  
Toshio Yamagata
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Enso Events ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ocean Atmosphere ◽  
First Time ◽  
Fully Coupled

Abstract Using a fully coupled global ocean–atmosphere general circulation model assimilating only sea surface temperature, the authors found for the first time that several El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events over the past two decades can be predicted at lead times of up to 2 yr. The El Niño condition in the 1997/98 winter can be predicted to some extent up to about a 1½-yr lead but with a weak intensity and large phase delay in the prediction of the onset of this exceptionally strong event. This is attributed to the influence of active and intensive stochastic westerly wind bursts during late 1996 to mid-1997, which are generally unpredictable at seasonal time scales. The cold signals in the 1984/85 and 1999/2000 winters during the peak phases of the past two long-lasting La Niña events are predicted well up to a 2-yr lead. Amazingly, the mild El Niño–like event of 2002/03 is also predicted well up to a 2-yr lead, suggesting a link between the prolonged El Niño and the tropical Pacific decadal variability. Seasonal climate anomalies over vast parts of the globe during specific ENSO years are also realistically predicted up to a 2-yr lead for the first time.

Interannual oscillations in an ocean general circulation model coupled to a simple atmosphere model

1989 ◽  
Vol 329 (1604) ◽  
pp. 189-205 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Coupled System ◽  
General Circulation Models ◽  
Atmospheric Model ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Coupled Oscillations

A model is being developed for tropical air-sea interaction studies that is intermediate in complexity between the large coupled general circulation models (GCMS) that are coming into use, and the simple two-level models with which pioneering El Nino Southern Oscillation studies were done. The model consists of a stripped-down tropical Pacific Ocean GCM, coupled to an atmospheric model that is sufficiently simple that steady-state solutions may be found for low-level flow and surface stress, given oceanic boundary conditions. This permits examination of the nature of interannual coupled oscillations in the absence of atmospheric noise. In preliminary tests of the model the coupled system is found to undergo a Hopf bifurcation as certain parameters are varied, giving rise to sustained three to four year oscillations. For stronger coupling, a secondary bifurcation yields six month coupled oscillations during the warm phase of the El Nino-period oscillation. Such variability could potentially affect the predictability of the coupled system.

scholarly journals A New Understanding of El Niño’s Impact over East Asia: Dominance of the ENSO Combination Mode

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 4347-4359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenjun Zhang ◽  
Haiyan Li ◽  
Malte F. Stuecker ◽  
Fei-Fei Jin ◽  
Andrew G. Turner
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Annual Cycle ◽  
El Niño ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Decay Phase ◽  
Atmospheric Response ◽  
Climate Anomalies ◽  
Combination Mode

Abstract Previous studies have shown that the Indo-Pacific atmospheric response to ENSO comprises two dominant modes of variability: a meridionally quasi-symmetric response (independent of the annual cycle) and an antisymmetric response (arising from the nonlinear atmospheric interaction between ENSO variability and the annual cycle), referred to as the combination mode (C-mode). This study demonstrates that the direct El Niño signal over the tropics is confined to the equatorial region and has no significant impact on the atmospheric response over East Asia. The El Niño–associated equatorial anomalies can be expanded toward off-equatorial regions by the C-mode through ENSO’s interaction with the annual cycle. The C-mode is the prime driver for the development of an anomalous low-level anticyclone over the western North Pacific (WNP) during the El Niño decay phase, which usually transports more moisture to East Asia and thereby causes more precipitation over southern China. An atmospheric general circulation model is used that reproduces well the WNP anticyclonic anomalies when both El Niño sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies as well as the SST annual cycle are prescribed as boundary conditions. However, no significant WNP anticyclonic circulation anomaly appears during the El Niño decay phase when excluding the SST annual cycle. The analyses herein of observational data and model experiments suggest that the annual cycle plays a key role in the East Asian climate anomalies associated with El Niño through their nonlinear atmospheric interaction. Hence, a realistic simulation of the annual cycle is crucial in order to correctly capture the ENSO-associated climate anomalies over East Asia.

Composite Analysis of the Effects of ENSO Events on Antarctica

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 1797-1808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee J. Welhouse ◽  
Matthew A. Lazzara ◽  
Linda M. Keller ◽  
Gregory J. Tripoli ◽  
Matthew H. Hitchman
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
Geopotential Height ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Southern Annular Mode ◽  
La Niña ◽  
Austral Spring ◽  
Enso Events ◽  
La Nina ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Previous investigations of the relationship between El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Antarctic climate have focused on regions that are impacted by both El Niño and La Niña, which favors analysis over the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas (ABS). Here, 35 yr (1979–2013) of European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts interim reanalysis (ERA-Interim) data are analyzed to investigate the relationship between ENSO and Antarctica for each season using a compositing method that includes nine El Niño and nine La Niña periods. Composites of 2-m temperature (T2m), sea level pressure (SLP), 500-hPa geopotential height, sea surface temperatures (SST), and 300-hPa geopotential height anomalies were calculated separately for El Niño minus neutral and La Niña minus neutral conditions, to provide an analysis of features associated with each phase of ENSO. These anomaly patterns can differ in important ways from El Niño minus La Niña composites, which may be expected from the geographical shift in tropical deep convection and associated pattern of planetary wave propagation into the Southern Hemisphere. The primary new result is the robust signal, during La Niña, of cooling over East Antarctica. This cooling is found from December to August. The link between the southern annular mode (SAM) and this cooling is explored. Both El Niño and La Niña experience the weakest signal during austral autumn. The peak signal for La Niña occurs during austral summer, while El Niño is found to peak during austral spring.

Predictability of Two Types of El Niño Assessed Using an Extended Seasonal Prediction System by MIROC

2015 ◽  
Vol 143 (11) ◽  
pp. 4597-4617 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yukiko Imada ◽  
Hiroaki Tatebe ◽  
Masayoshi Ishii ◽  
Yoshimitsu Chikamoto ◽  
Masato Mori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Seasonal Prediction ◽  
Ocean General Circulation Model ◽  
Prediction System ◽  
Central Pacific

Abstract Predictability of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is examined using ensemble hindcasts made with a seasonal prediction system based on the atmosphere and ocean general circulation model, the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate, version 5 (MIROC5). Particular attention is paid to differences in predictive skill in terms of the prediction error for two prominent types of El Niño: the conventional eastern Pacific (EP) El Niño and the central Pacific (CP) El Niño, the latter having a maximum warming around the date line. Although the system adopts ocean anomaly assimilation for the initialization process, it maintains a significant ability to predict ENSO with a lead time of more than half a year. This is partly due to the fact that the system is little affected by the “spring prediction barrier,” because increases in the error have little dependence on the thermocline variability. Composite analyses of each type of El Niño reveal that, compared to EP El Niños, the ability to predict CP El Niños is limited and has a shorter lead time. This is because CP El Niños have relatively small amplitudes, and thus they are more affected by atmospheric noise; this prevents development of oceanic signals that can be used for prediction.

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