A central tropical Pacific coral demonstrates Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic decadal climate connections

Cobb, Kim M.; Charles, Christopher D.; Hunter, David E.

doi:10.1029/2001gl012919

Cited by 135 publications

(136 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Proxy-based climate records in the equatorial Atlantic also indicate an existence of this decadal mode prior to last century (Black et al 1999;Cobb et al 2001). By no means, however, this implies that it is the only or even the dominant mode of Atlantic climate variability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-hemispheric Decadal Variations in SST, Surface Wind, Heat Flux and Cloud Cover over the Atlantic Ocean.

Tanimoto

Xie

2002

Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan

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Atlantic decadal climate variations are studied using marine meteorological observations. To remove artificial interhemispheric correlation, we perform empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of sea surface temperature (SST) variability separately for the North and South Atlantic. The first EOF for the North (South) Atlantic in the decadal (8-16 years) band features a meridional tripole (dipole). In the tropics, the northern and southern leading EOFs form a meridional dipole with a center of action at 15 on either side of the equator. The leading sea level pressure (SLP) EOFs for the North and South Atlantic each feature a center of action that is displaced poleward of the tropical SST extreme, at 30 latitude. The SLP center of action in the North Atlantic has a barotropic structure and contributes significantly to surface wind variability in the tropics. Despite being derived from statistically independent data samples, the principle components for the leading SST and SLP EOFs (four in total) are significantly correlated with one another, indicative of the existence of an interhemispheric mode spanning the entire Atlantic Ocean. The same analysis for a longer SST record suggests that this pan-Atlantic decadal variability exists throughout the 20th century.In the North Atlantic, composite analysis of wind velocity and heat fluxes based on the PCs of the leading SST modes indicates that wind-induced latent heat flux is the major forcing for decadal SST variability. In the South Atlantic, by contrast, wind anomalies are neither organized in space nor in geostrophic balance with SLP, a problem likely due to poor sampling there as indicated by a comparison with well-sampled satellite measurements.Spatially coherent anomalies of low-level cloud cover are found to be associated with the tropical Atlantic dipole, with increased (decreased) cloudiness over the cold (warm) lobe. These low-level cloud anomalies do not appear to be associated with significant surface wind convergence, unlike the deep convective clouds near the equator. By shielding solar radiation, these low-level cloud anomalies act to reinforce the underlying SST anomalies, reducing the Newtonian cooling rate for SST by as much as 30%.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-hemispheric Decadal Variations in SST, Surface Wind, Heat Flux and Cloud Cover over the Atlantic Ocean.

Tanimoto

Xie

2002

Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan

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“…The interannual frequencies encompass the typical time scales of ENSO variability (e.g. Cole et al 2000;Cobb et al 2001;. The tropical Pacific is known to have a strong influence on Indian Ocean SST and Indian monsoon rainfall and the correlation in both depends on the life cycle of ENSO.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A strong ENSO signal is observed in all records, in three cases related to SST anomalies and in two, the ENSO signal is proposed to arise from oceanic advection or changes in the hydrologic balance (Zinke et al 2004a, b;Pfeiffer et al 2004). Decadal variability is prominent in all coral records with a periodicity varying between 9 and 13 years in the tropical (10°N-10°S, 40-70°E) and 16-35 years in the subtropical corals (15-30°S, 40-70°E) (Charles et al 1997;Cole et al 2000;Cobb et al 2001;Zinke et al 2004a, b;Pfeiffer et al 2004;Suppl. Fig.…”

Section: Coral Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Geochemical parameters in massive coral skeletons from the Indian Ocean are well established in providing monthly to annually resolved time series of changes in SST, salinity and precipitation in the shallow oceans for up to 350 years (Fig. 1b;Charles et al 1997Charles et al , 2003Cole et al 2000;Cobb et al 2001;Kuhnert et al 2000;Zinke et al 2004aZinke et al , b, 2005Pfeiffer et al 2004Timm et al 2005;Damassa et al 2006).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Western Indian Ocean marine and terrestrial records of climate variability: a review and new concepts on land–ocean interactions since AD 1660

Zinke

Pfeiffer

Timm

et al. 2008

Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch)

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We examine the relationship between three tropical and two subtropical western Indian Ocean coral oxygen isotope time series to surface air temperatures (SAT) and rainfall over India, tropical East Africa and southeast Africa. We review established relationships, provide new concepts with regard to distinct rainfall seasons, and mean annual temperatures. Tropical corals are coherent with SAT over western India and East Africa at interannual and multidecadal periodicities. The subtropical corals correlate with Southeast African SAT at periodicities of 16-30 years. The relationship between the coral records and land rainfall is more complex. Running correlations suggest varying strength of interannual teleconnections between the tropical coral oxygen isotope records and rainfall over equatorial East Africa. The relationship with rainfall over India changed in the 1970s. The subtropical oxygen isotope records are coherent with South African rainfall at interdecadal periodicities. Paleoclimatological reconstructions of land rainfall and SAT reveal that the inferred relationships generally hold during the last 350 years. Thus, the Indian Ocean corals prove invaluable for investigating land-ocean interactions during past centuries.

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“…2004c), Mayotte (MA), Ifaty (IF) (Zinke et al . 2004a, b), Palmyra (PA) (Cobb et al . 2001); N3 refers to the Niño-3 index (Kaplan et al .…”

Section: (G) Multi-proxy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmosphere–ocean dynamics in the Western Indian Ocean recorded in corals

Zinke

Pfeiffer

Timm

et al. 2005

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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We present a set of Porites coral oxygen isotope records from the tropical and subtropical Western Indian Ocean covering the past 120-336 years. All records were thoroughly validated for proxy response to regional climate factors and their relation to large-scale climate modes. The records show markedly different imprints of regional climate factors. At the same time, all coral records show clear teleconnections between the Western Indian Ocean and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The multi-proxy site analysis enables the detection of the covariance structure between individual records and climate modes such as ENSO. This method unravels shifts in ENSO teleconnectivity of the Western and Central Indian Ocean on multi-decadal time-scales (after 1976). The Seychelles record shows a stationary correlation with ENSO, Chagos corals show evidence for non-stationary δ 18 O/ENSO relationships and the Southwestern Indian Ocean corals show a strong relationship with ENSO when the forcing is strong (1880-1920, 1970 to present).Our results indicate that the coral δ 18 O, in combination with other proxies, can be used to monitor temporal and spatial variations in the sea-surface temperature and the fresh water balance within the Indian Ocean on interannual to interdecadal time-scales.

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A central tropical Pacific coral demonstrates Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic decadal climate connections

Abstract: Abstract.While instrumental and proxy-based climate records describe significant decadal-scale climate variability throughout the tropical Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans, the processes responsible for these

Cited by 135 publications

References 22 publications

Inter-hemispheric Decadal Variations in SST, Surface Wind, Heat Flux and Cloud Cover over the Atlantic Ocean.

Inter-hemispheric Decadal Variations in SST, Surface Wind, Heat Flux and Cloud Cover over the Atlantic Ocean.

Western Indian Ocean marine and terrestrial records of climate variability: a review and new concepts on land–ocean interactions since AD 1660

Atmosphere–ocean dynamics in the Western Indian Ocean recorded in corals

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