scholarly journals Limited impact of El Niño – Southern Oscillation on the methane cycle

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hinrich Schaefer ◽  
Dan Smale ◽  
Sylvia E. Nichol ◽  
Tony M. Bromley ◽  
Ross J. Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
El Niño Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
Atmospheric Methane ◽  
Methane Cycle ◽  
Ch4 Production ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been suggested as a strong forcing in the methane cycle and as a driver of recent trends in global atmospheric methane levels. Such a sensitivity of the global CH4 budget to climate events would have important repercussions for climate change mitigation strategies and the accuracy of projections for future greenhouse forcing. Here, we test the impact of ENSO on the CH4 cycle in a correlation analysis. We use local and global records of methane mixing ratio [CH4], as well as stable carbon isotopic records of atmospheric CH4 (δ13CH4), which are particularly sensitive to the combined ENSO effects on CH4 production from wetlands and biomass burning. We use a variety of nominal, smoothed and detrended time series including growth rate records. We find that at most 38 % of the variability in [CH4] and δ13CH4 is attributable to ENSO, but only for detrended records in the Southern tropics. Trend-bearing records from the Southern tropics, as well as all studied hemispheric and global records show a minor impact of ENSO, i.e.

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 Limited impact of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on variability and growth rate of atmospheric methane

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (21) ◽  
pp. 6371-6386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hinrich Schaefer ◽  
Dan Smale ◽  
Sylvia E. Nichol ◽  
Tony M. Bromley ◽  
Gordon W. Brailsford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Growth Rate ◽  
Biomass Burning ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
Atmospheric Methane ◽  
Ch4 Production ◽  
A Minor

Abstract. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been suggested as a strong forcing in the methane cycle and as a driver of recent trends in global atmospheric methane mole fractions [CH4]. Such a sensitivity of the global CH4 budget to climate events would have important repercussions for climate change mitigation strategies and the accuracy of projections for future greenhouse forcing. Here, we test the impact of ENSO on atmospheric CH4 in a correlation analysis. We use local and global records of [CH4], as well as stable carbon isotopic records of atmospheric CH4 (δ13CH4), which are particularly sensitive to the combined ENSO effects on CH4 production from wetlands and biomass burning. We use a variety of nominal, smoothed, and detrended time series including growth rate records. We find that at most 36 % of the variability in [CH4] and δ13CH4 is attributable to ENSO, but only for detrended records in the southern tropics. Trend-bearing records from the southern tropics, as well as all studied hemispheric and global records, show a minor impact of ENSO, i.e. < 24 % of variability explained. Additional analyses using hydrogen cyanide (HCN) records show a detectable ENSO influence on biomass burning (up to 51 %–55 %), suggesting that it is wetland CH4 production that responds less to ENSO than previously suggested. Dynamics of the removal by hydroxyl likely counteract the variation in emissions, but the expected isotope signal is not evident. It is possible that other processes obscure the ENSO signal, which itself indicates a minor influence of the latter on global CH4 emissions. Trends like the recent rise in atmospheric [CH4] can therefore not be attributed to ENSO. This leaves anthropogenic methane sources as the likely driver, which must be mitigated to reduce anthropogenic climate change.

scholarly journals Correction to: The impact of stochastic physics on the El Niño Southern Oscillation in the EC-Earth coupled model

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 2479-2479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunxue Yang ◽  
Hannah M. Christensen ◽  
Susanna Corti ◽  
Jost von Hardenberg ◽  
Paolo Davini
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
El Niño Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Stochastic Physics

Observed Relationships between the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Extratropical Zonal-Mean Circulation

2006 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle L. L’Heureux ◽  
David W. J. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Zonal Wind ◽  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
El Niño Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
Annular Mode ◽  
Mean Circulation ◽  
The Impact

Abstract There is increasing evidence indicating that the climate response to variations in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) includes not only thermally forced zonal wind anomalies in the subtropics but also eddy-driven zonal wind anomalies that extend into the mid–high latitudes of both hemispheres. In this study, new insights into the observed seasonally varying signature of ENSO in the extratropical zonal-mean circulation are provided and the associated linkages with the dominant patterns of extratropical variability are examined. The zonal-mean extratropical atmospheric response to ENSO is characterized by two principal features: an equivalent barotropic dipole in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) zonal-mean zonal flow with centers of action located near ∼40° and ∼60° during austral summer, and a weaker, but analogous, dipole in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) with centers of action located near ∼25° and ∼45° during early and late boreal winter. Both structures are accompanied by eddy momentum flux anomalies that exhibit a remarkable degree of hemispheric symmetry. In the SH, the extratropical signature of ENSO projects strongly onto the primary mode of large-scale variability, the southern annular mode (SAM). During the austral summer, roughly 25% of the temporal variability in the SAM is linearly related to fluctuations in the ENSO cycle. An analogous relationship is not observed in association with the principal mode of climate variability in the NH, the northern annular mode (NAM). It is argued that the seasonally varying impact of ENSO on the extratropical circulation is consistent with the impact of the thermally forced subtropical wind anomalies on the dissipation of equatorward-propagating wave activity at subtropical latitudes.

scholarly journals El Niño–Southern Oscillation Impacts on Rice Production in Luzon, the Philippines

2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 1718-1724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha G. Roberts ◽  
David Dawe ◽  
Walter P. Falcon ◽  
Rosamond L. Naylor
Keyword(s):  
El Niño ◽  
El Nino ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Dry Season ◽  
Rice Production ◽  
El Niño Southern Oscillation ◽  
El Nino Southern Oscillation ◽  
Yield Production ◽  
The Impact

Abstract This study uses regression analysis to evaluate the relationships among sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) averaged over the Niño-3.4 region (5°N–5°S, 120°–170°W), rainfall, and rice production, area harvested, and yield in Luzon, the large island on which most Philippine rice is grown. Previous research on Philippine rice production and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has found negative associations between El Niño events and rice yields in rainfed systems. This analysis goes further and shows that both irrigated and rainfed ecosystems are impacted. It also compares impacts on area harvested and yield. Variations in average July–September Niño-3.4 SSTAs explain approximately 29% of the interannual variations in the deviations of total January–June (dry season) rice production from a polynomial trend for 1970–2005. In contrast, no impact was found on July–December production in either year t or t + 1. The impact of ENSO on dry-season rice production in Luzon appears to be primarily due to changes in area harvested rather than yield. Production declines for rainfed ecosystems are relatively larger than for irrigated ecosystems: a 1°C increase in average July–September Niño-3.4 SSTA is associated with a 3.7% decrease in irrigated dry-season production but with a 13.7% decline in rainfed dry-season production.

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