scholarly journals Warming Patterns Affect El Niño Diversity in CMIP5 and CMIP6 Models

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (19) ◽  
pp. 8237-8260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandy B. Freund ◽  
Josephine R. Brown ◽  
Benjamin J. Henley ◽  
David J. Karoly ◽  
Jaclyn N. Brown

AbstractGiven the consequences and global significance of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events it is essential to understand the representation of El Niño diversity in climate models for the present day and the future. In recent decades, El Niño events have occurred more frequently in the central Pacific (CP). Eastern Pacific (EP) El Niño events have increased in intensity. However, the processes and future implications of these observed changes in El Niño are not well understood. Here, the frequency and intensity of El Niño events are assessed in models from phases 5 and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5 and CMIP6), and results are compared to extended instrumental and multicentury paleoclimate records. Future changes of El Niño are stronger for CP events than for EP events and differ between models. Models with a projected La Niña–like mean-state warming pattern show a tendency toward more EP but fewer CP events compared to models with an El Niño–like warming pattern. Among the models with more El Niño–like warming, differences in future El Niño can be partially explained by Pacific decadal variability (PDV). During positive PDV phases, more El Niño events occur, so future frequency changes are mainly determined by projected changes during positive PDV phases. Similarly, the intensity of El Niño is strongest during positive PDV phases. Future changes to El Niño may thus depend on both mean-state warming and decadal-scale natural variability.

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.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 3965-3987 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Schollaen ◽  
C. Karamperidou ◽  
P. J. Krusic ◽  
E. R. 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.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruscena Wiederholt ◽  
Eric Post

Many primate species are severely threatened, but little is known about the effects of global warming and the associated intensification of El Niño events on primate populations. Here, we document the influences of the El Niño southern oscillation (ENSO) and hemispheric climatic variability on the population dynamics of four genera of ateline (neotropical, large-bodied) primates. All ateline genera experienced either an immediate or a lagged negative effect of El Niño events. ENSO events were also found to influence primate resource levels through neotropical arboreal phenology. Furthermore, frugivorous primates showed a high degree of interspecific population synchrony over large scales across Central and South America attributable to the recent trends in large-scale climate. These results highlight the role of large-scale climatic variation and trends in ateline primate population dynamics, and emphasize that global warming could pose additional threats to the persistence of multiple species of endangered primates.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (13) ◽  
pp. 4819-4842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Young-Kwon Lim ◽  
Robin M. Kovach ◽  
Steven Pawson ◽  
Guillaume Vernieres

The 2015/16 El Niño is analyzed using atmospheric and oceanic analysis produced using the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) data assimilation systems. As well as describing the structure of the event, a theme of this work is to compare and contrast it with two other strong El Niños, in 1982/83 and 1997/98. These three El Niño events are included in the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) and in the more recent MERRA-2 reanalyses. MERRA-2 allows a comparison of fields derived from the underlying GEOS model, facilitating a more detailed comparison of physical forcing mechanisms in the El Niño events. Various atmospheric and oceanic structures indicate that the 2015/16 El Niño maximized in the Niño-3.4 region, with a large region of warming over most of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The eastern tropical Indian Ocean, Maritime Continent, and western tropical Pacific are found to be less dry in boreal winter, compared to the earlier two strong events. Whereas the 2015/16 El Niño had an earlier occurrence of the equatorial Pacific warming and was the strongest event on record in the central Pacific, the 1997/98 event exhibited a more rapid growth due to stronger westerly wind bursts and the Madden–Julian oscillation during spring, making it the strongest El Niño in the eastern Pacific. Compared to 1982/83 and 1997/98, the 2015/16 event had a shallower thermocline over the eastern Pacific with a weaker zonal contrast of subsurface water temperatures along the equatorial Pacific. While the three major ENSO events have similarities, each is unique when looking at the atmosphere and ocean surface and subsurface.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 1943-1962 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruihuang Xie ◽  
Fei-Fei Jin

Modern instrumental records reveal that El Niño events differ in their spatial patterns and temporal evolutions. Attempts have been made to categorize them roughly into two main types: eastern Pacific (EP; or cold tongue) and central Pacific (CP; or warm pool) El Niño events. In this study, a modified version of the Zebiak–Cane (MZC) coupled model is used to examine the dynamics of these two types of El Niño events. Linear eigenanalysis of the model is conducted to show that there are two leading El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) modes with their SST patterns resembling those of two types of El Niño. Thus, they are referred to as the EP and CP ENSO modes. These two modes are sensitive to changes in the mean states. The heat budget analyses demonstrate that the EP (CP) mode is dominated by thermocline (zonal advective) feedback. Therefore, the weak (strong) mean wind stress and deep (shallow) mean thermocline prefer the EP (CP) ENSO mode because of the relative dominance of thermocline (zonal advective) feedback under such a mean state. Consistent with the linear stability analysis, the occurrence ratio of CP/EP El Niño events in the nonlinear simulations generally increases toward the regime where the linear CP ENSO mode has relatively higher growth rate. These analyses suggest that the coexistence of two leading ENSO modes is responsible for two types of El Niño simulated in the MZC model. This model result may provide a plausible scenario for the observed ENSO diversity.


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (22) ◽  
pp. 7917-7936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Stevenson ◽  
Baylor Fox-Kemper ◽  
Markus Jochum

Abstract The influence of atmospheric CO2 concentration on the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is explored using 800-yr integrations of the NCAR Community Climate System Model, version 3.5 (CCSM3.5), with CO2 stabilized at the a.d. 1850, 1990, and 2050 levels. Model mean state changes with increased CO2 include preferential SST warming in the eastern equatorial Pacific, a weakening of the equatorial trade winds, increased vertical ocean stratification, and a reduction in the atmospheric Hadley and oceanic subtropical overturning circulations. The annual cycle of SST strengthens with CO2, likely related to unstable air–sea interactions triggered by an increased Northern Hemisphere land–sea temperature contrast. The mean trade wind structure changes asymmetrically about the equator, with increased convergence in the Northern Hemisphere and divergence in the Southern Hemisphere leading to corresponding deepening and shoaling of the thermocline. The proportion of eastern versus central Pacific–type El Niño events increases with CO2, but the significance of the changes is relatively low; ENSO amplitude also increases with CO2, although the change is insignificant at periods longer than 4 yr. The 2–4-yr ENSO response shows an enhancement in equatorial Kelvin wave variability, suggesting that stochastic triggering of El Niño events may be favored with higher CO2. However, the seasonal cycle–ENSO interaction is also modified by the asymmetric climatological changes, and forcing by the Southern Hemisphere becomes more important with higher CO2. Finally, higher-resolution CCSM4 control simulations show that ENSO weakens with CO2 given a sufficiently long integration time. The cause for the difference in ENSO climate sensitivity is not immediately obvious but may potentially be related to changes in westerly wind bursts or other sources of high-frequency wind stress variability.


2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 237-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Arteaga ◽  
P. Tutasi ◽  
R. Jiménez

Abstract. This paper reports on an investigation into the chronology of El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, during the period from the arrival of conquistadores in Ecuador in 1532 until the year 1900. A number of probable El Niño events and drought years can be dated from anecdotal reports of significant rainfall and drought in the equatorial region. The evidence of ENSO has been documented from early reports in the South America archives. A large number of books and articles have been reviewing from the Ecuadorian archives to obtain information on El Niño events that have occurred over the past centuries. This information is based on evidence obtained from the equatorial region, where strong and very strong El Niño events clearly separate the northern part of the Ecuadorian coast from the southern region, the normally rainy season specially from west-central to the south coast of Ecuador, as well as the drought years, reported in this region which is climatologically and oceanographically different from the moist Northern coast of Ecuador. Given the normal occurrence of rains in the southern coast of Ecuador, it is reasonable to expect that at least some of the major rainy seasons would be recorded in local chronicles and publications. This information has been compared with reports obtained from Peru. Relative strengths of events are based on such considerations as wind and current effects on travel times of ancient sailing ships, degree of physical damage and destruction, amounts of rainfall and flooding, human disease epidemic, mass mortality of endemic marine organism, rises in sea temperatures and sea levels, effects on coastal fisheries. This paper is the first survey of the historical sources concerned the rainfall and drought in Ecuador. In the course of this investigation we also noted some extended periods of time, near decadal or longer over the past records, when the amount and/or strength of El Niño and its resulting effects appeared to represent significant long-term climate changes.


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.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 851
Author(s):  
Gen Li ◽  
Zhiyuan Zhang ◽  
Bo Lu

Under increased greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing, climate models tend to project a warmer sea surface temperature in the eastern equatorial Pacific than in the western equatorial Pacific. This El Niño-like warming pattern may induce an increase in the projected occurrence frequency of extreme El Niño events. The current models, however, commonly suffer from an excessive westward extension of the equatorial Pacific cold tongue accompanied by insufficient equatorial western Pacific precipitation. By comparing the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 experiments with the historical simulations based on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5), a “present–future” relationship among climate models was identified: models with insufficient equatorial western Pacific precipitation error would have a weaker mean El Niño-like warming pattern as well as a lower increase in the frequency of extreme El Niño events under increased GHG forcing. Using this “present–future” relationship and the observed precipitation in the equatorial western Pacific, this study calibrated the climate projections in the tropical Pacific. The corrected projections showed a stronger El Niño-like pattern of mean changes in the future, consistent with our previous study. In particular, the projected increased occurrence of extreme El Niño events under RCP 8.5 forcing are underestimated by 30–35% in the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble before the corrections. This implies an increased risk of the El Niño-related weather and climate disasters in the future.


2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 1566-1574 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Potgieter ◽  
G. L. Hammer ◽  
H. Meinke ◽  
R. C. Stone ◽  
L. Goddard

Abstract The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon significantly impacts rainfall and ensuing crop yields in many parts of the world. In Australia, El Niño events are often associated with severe drought conditions. However, El Niño events differ spatially and temporally in their manifestations and impacts, reducing the relevance of ENSO-based seasonal forecasts. In this analysis, three putative types of El Niño are identified among the 24 occurrences since the beginning of the twentieth century. The three types are based on coherent spatial patterns (“footprints”) found in the El Niño impact on Australian wheat yield. This bioindicator reveals aligned spatial patterns in rainfall anomalies, indicating linkage to atmospheric drivers. Analysis of the associated ocean–atmosphere dynamics identifies three types of El Niño differing in the timing of onset and location of major ocean temperature and atmospheric pressure anomalies. Potential causal mechanisms associated with these differences in anomaly patterns need to be investigated further using the increasing capabilities of general circulation models. Any improved predictability would be extremely valuable in forecasting effects of individual El Niño events on agricultural systems.


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