Contrasting the eastern Pacific El Niño and the central Pacific El Niño: process-based feedback attribution

Hu, Xiaoming; Yang, Song; Cai, Ming

doi:10.1007/s00382-015-2971-9

Cited by 34 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Through the deepening of the Aleutian Low in the Pacific North American pattern, El Niño intensifies the vertical propagation of ultralong Rossby waves in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) during winter (e.g., Garcia-Herrera et al, 2006). As waves dissipate at middle-to-high latitudes in the stratosphere, the Brewer-Dobson circulation (Brewer, 1949;Dobson, 1956;Dobson et al, 1929) strengthens, leading to an anomalous warming in the Arctic stratosphere, which has been seen in observational records (Camp & Tung, 2007;Free & Seidel, 2009;Garfinkel & Hartmann, 2007;Labitzke & Loon, 1989;Lan et al, 2012;Ren et al, 2012;Van Loon & Labitzke, 1987;Wei et al, 2007) and reproduced in modeling studies (Garcia-Herrera et al, 2006;Garfinkel, Hurwitz, Oman, & Waugh, 2013;Garfinkel, Hurwitz, Waugh, & Butler, the central Pacific (CP) type, has been found to occur with increasing frequency in the tropical Pacific Cai & Cowan, 2009;Kao & Yu, 2009;Kug et al, 2009;Shinoda et al, 2011;Yeh et al, 2009;Zhang et al, 2015); the reasons for this are debated Hu et al, 2016;Kug et al, 2010;Li et al, 2015Li et al, , 2017Yeh et al, 2009Yeh et al, , 2011. The different spatial patterns of tropical sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies indicate that the climatic impacts of CP El Niño are distinct from those of the traditional, or eastern Pacific (EP), type, both in the troposphere (e.g., Feng & Li, 2011;Weng et al, 2007;Zhang et al, 2011;Zhang et al, 2013Zhang et al, , 2014Zhang et al, , 2015 and in the stratosphere…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Does Extreme El Niño Have a Different Effect on the Stratosphere in Boreal Winter Than Its Moderate Counterpart?

et al. 2018

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A robust impact of El Niño on the Northern Hemisphere (NH) polar stratosphere has been demonstrated by previous studies, although whether this applies to extreme El Niño is uncertain. The time evolution of the response of the NH stratospheric vortex to extreme El Niño, compared with that to moderate eastern Pacific El Niño, is addressed by means of composite analysis using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/Department of Energy reanalysis data set from 1980 to 2016. Lead‐lag analysis indicates that the El Niño signal actually leads the stratospheric response by ~2 months. Considering the time lag, the signal of December‐January‐February El Niño in the NH stratospheric vortex should mature in the February‐March‐April season (late winter/early spring). The patterns of circulation and temperature for late winter/early spring during extreme and moderate El Niño events are significant, exhibiting similar structure. The results are confirmed with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model version 4 model, which is forced with observed SSTs of extreme and moderate El Niño in winter (December‐January‐February) to analyze the day‐to‐day propagation of their signals. Note that the magnitudes of the stratospheric responses are much larger in the case of extreme El Niño, as stronger upward propagation of planetary waves leads to a weaker northern polar vortex than during moderate El Niño events.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Does Extreme El Niño Have a Different Effect on the Stratosphere in Boreal Winter Than Its Moderate Counterpart?

et al. 2018

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“…Unlike the present event, the 1925 coastal El Niño was followed by a significant warming in the central tropical Pacific the next summer. Notably, the surface warming of coastal El Niños does not fit the spatial pattern of either eastern or central Pacific events (Kao and Yu, 2009;Takahashi et al, 2011;Hu et al, 2016). The coastal warming occurred at the time of maximum SST on its annual march (Horel, 1982) with coastal temperatures above 28 ∘ C and setting the stage for deep convection (e.g.…”

Section: Event Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Event Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A plausible atmospheric trigger for the 2017 coastal El Niño

Garreaud

2018

Intl Journal of Climatology

106

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The far eastern tropical Pacific experienced a rapid, marked warming in early 2017, causing torrential rains along the west coast of South America with a significant societal toll in Peru and Ecuador. This strong coastal El Niño was largely unpredicted, even a few weeks before its onset, and it developed differently from either central or eastern events. Here we provide an overview of the event, its impacts and concomitant atmospheric circulation. It is proposed that a remotely forced, sustained weakening of the free tropospheric westerly flow impinging the subtropical Andes leads to a relaxation of the southeasterly (SE) trades off the coast, which in turn may have warmed the eastern Pacific throughout the weakening of upwelling in a near‐coastal band and the lessening of the evaporative cooling farther offshore.

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“…Siberian high result from a combination of factors, including cold advection, increased surface cooling due to larger sensible heat flux, and weaker greenhouse effect due to reduced water vapour and cloud water content. Hu et al (2016) used the same method to energetically explain the different distribution of surface temperature anomalies in Eastern and Central Pacific El Niños. Although the heat flux from the ocean was identified as the main cause of surface temperature anomalies in both cases, the larger warming in the Eastern Pacific during the Eastern Pacific El Niños was attributed to a stronger water vapour feedback in this area.…”

Section: They Found That Lower Temperatures In Central Siberia In Winmentioning

confidence: 99%

Energetics of interannual temperature variability

Räisänen

2018

Clim Dyn

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Energetics of interannual temperature variability in the years 1980-2016 is studied using two reanalysis data sets. Monthly temperature anomalies are decomposed to contributions from the net surface energy flux, atmospheric energy convergence minus storage (CONV), and processes that affect the top-of-the-atmosphere radiation balance. The analysis reveals a strong compensation between the net surface heat flux and CONV over the ice-free oceans, with the former driving the temperature variability over the tropical oceans and the latter at higher latitudes. CONV also makes a dominant contribution to temperature anomalies in the winter hemisphere extratopical continents. During the summer half-year and in the tropics, however, variations in cloudiness dominate the temperature variability over land, while the contribution of CONV is modest or even negative. The latter reflects the diffusion-like behaviour of short-term atmospheric variability, which acts to spread out the local, to a large extent cloud-induced temperature anomalies to larger areas. The ERA-Interim and MERRA2 reanalyses largely agree on the general energy budget features of interannual temperature variability, although substantial quantitative differences occur in some of the individual terms.

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Contrasting the eastern Pacific El Niño and the central Pacific El Niño: process-based feedback attribution

Cited by 34 publications

References 57 publications

Does Extreme El Niño Have a Different Effect on the Stratosphere in Boreal Winter Than Its Moderate Counterpart?

Does Extreme El Niño Have a Different Effect on the Stratosphere in Boreal Winter Than Its Moderate Counterpart?

A plausible atmospheric trigger for the 2017 coastal El Niño

Energetics of interannual temperature variability

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