On the joint role of subtropical atmospheric variability and equatorial subsurface heat content anomalies in initiating the onset of ENSO events

Journal of Climate

Volumn 20, Issue 8, 2007, Pages 1593-1599

  Anderson, Bruce T ^a  

^a BOSTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE; CLIMATE CHANGE; ENTHALPY; SEA LEVEL;

EL NINO-SOUTHERN OSCILLATION; EQUATORIAL SUBSURFACE HEAT CONTENT; SEA LEVEL PRESSURE; SUBTROPICAL ATMOSPHERIC VARIABILITY;

ATMOSPHERIC THERMODYNAMICS;

EL NINO-SOUTHERN OSCILLATION; SEA LEVEL PRESSURE; SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE; SEASONAL VARIATION;

PACIFIC OCEAN; PACIFIC OCEAN (EQUATORIAL); PACIFIC OCEAN (NORTH);

EID: 33947392957     PISSN: 08948755     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1175/JCLI4075.1     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Anderson, B. T., 2003: Tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures and precedings sea level pressure anomalies in the subtropical North Pacific. J. Geophys. Res., 108, 4732, doi:10.1029/ 2003JD003805.
2. Anderson, B. T., 2004: Investigation of a large-scale mode of ocean-atmosphere variability and its relation to tropical Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies. J. Climate, 17, 4089-4098.
3. Anderson, B. T., and E. Maloney, 2006: Interannual tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures and their relation to preceding sea level pressures in the NCAR CCSM2. J. Climate, 19, 998-1012.
4. Barnett, T. P., 1985: Variations in near-global sea level pressure. J. Atmos. Sci., 42, 478-501.
5. Barnett, T. P., D. W. Pierce, M. Latif, D. Dommenget, and R. Saravanan, 1999: Interdecadal interactions between the tropics and midlatitudes in the Pacific basin. Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 615-618.
6. Chan, J. C. L., and J. Xu, 2000: Physical mechanisms responsible for the transition from a warm to a cold state of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. J. Climate, 13, 2056-2071.
7. Chepurin, G. A., and J. A. Carton, 1999: Comparison of retrospective analyses of the global ocean heat content. Dyn. Atmos. Oceans, 29, 119-145.
8. Ebisuzaki, W., 1997: A method to estimate the statistical significance of a correlation when the data are serially correlated. J. Climate, 10, 2147-2153.
9. Fedorov, A. V., 2002: The response of the coupled tropical ocean-atmosphere to westerly wind bursts. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 128, 1-23.
10. Granger, C. W. J., 1969: Investigating causal relations by econometric models and cross-spectral methods. Econometrica, 37, 424-438.
11. Gu, D., and S. G. H. Philander, 1997: Interdecadal climate fluctuations that depend on exchanges between the tropics and extratropics. Science, 275, 805-807.
12. Hurrell, J. W., and K. E. Trenberth, 1999: Global sea surface temperature analyses: Multiple problems and their implications for climate analysis, modeling, and reanalysis. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 80, 2661-2678.
13. Jin, F.-F., 1997: An equatorial ocean recharge paradigm for ENSO. Part I: Conceptual model. J. Atmos. Sci., 54, 811-829.
14. Kalnay, E., and Coauthors, 1996: The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 437-471.
15. Kidson, J. E., 1975: Tropical eigenvector analysis and the Southern Oscillation. Mon. Wea. Rev., 103, 187-196.
16. Kistler, R., and Coauthors, 2001: The NCEP-NCAR 50-Year Reanalysis: Monthly means CD-ROM and documentation. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 82, 247-267.
17. Larkin, N. K., and D. E. Harrison, 2002: ENSO warm (El Niño) and cold (La Niña) event life cycles: Ocean surface anomaly patterns, their symmetries, asymmetries, and implications. J. Climate, 15, 1118-1140.
18. Li, T., 1997: Phase transition of the El Ninño-Southern Oscillation: A stationary SST mode. J. Atmos. Sci., 54, 2872-2887.
19. Lysne, J., P. Chang, and B. Giese, 1997: Impact of the extratropical Pacific on equatorial variability. Geophys. Res. Lett., 24, 2589-2592.
20. McPhaden, M. J., 2003: Tropical Pacific Ocean heat content variations and ENSO persistence barriers. Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 1480, doi:10.1029/2003GL016872.
21. Meinen, C. S., and M. J. McPhaden, 2000: Observations of warm water volume changes in the equatorial Pacific and their relationship to El Niño and La Niña. J. Climate, 13, 3551-3559.
22. Meinen, C. S., and M. J. McPhaden, 2001: Interannual variability in warm water volume transports in the equatorial Pacific during 1993-99. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 31, 1324-1345.
23. Moore, A. M., and R. Kleeman, 1999: Stochastic forcing of ENSO by the intraseasonal oscillation. J. Climate, 12, 1199-1220.
24. Perigaud, C. M., and C. Cassou, 2000: Importance of oceanic decadal trends and westerly wind bursts for forecasting El Niño. Geophys. Res. Lett., 27, 389-392.
25. Philander, S. G. H., 1985: El Niño and La Niña. J. Atmos. Sci., 42, 2652-2662.
26. Pierce, D. W., T. P. Barnett, and M. Latif, 2000: Connections between the Pacific Ocean Tropics and midlatitudes on decadal timescales. J. Climate, 13, 1173-1194.
27. Rasmusson, E. M., and T. H. Carpenter, 1982: Variations in tropical sea surface temperature and surface wind fields associated with the Southern Oscillation/El Niño. Mon. Wea. Rev., 110, 354-384.
28. Reiter, E. R., 1978: Long-term wind variability in the tropical Pacific, its possible causes and effects. Mon. Wea. Rev., 106, 324-330.
29. Torrence, C., and P. J. Webster, 1998: The annual cycle of persistence in the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 124, 1985-2004.
30. Trenberth, K. E., 1976: Spatial and temporal variations of the Southern Oscillation. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 102, 639-653.
31. Trenberth, K. E., and D. J. Shea, 1987: On the evolution of the Southern Oscillation. Mon. Wea. Rev., 115, 3078-3096.
32. van Loon, H. L., 1984: The Southern Oscillation. Part III: Associations with the trades and with the trough in the westerlies of the South Pacific Ocean. Mon. Wea. Rev., 112, 947-954.
33. van Loon, H. L., and D. J. Shea, 1985: The Southern Oscillation. Part IV: The precursors south of 15°S to the extremes of the oscillation. Mon. Wea. Rev., 113, 2063-2074.
34. van Loon, H. L., and D. J. Shea, 1987: The Southern Oscillation. Part VI: Anomalies of sea level pressure on the Southern Hemisphere and of the Pacific sea surface temperature during the development of a warm event. Mon. Wea. Rev., 115, 370-379.
35. Vimont, D. J., S. Battisti, and A. C. Hirst, 2001: Footprinting: A seasonal connection between the tropics and mid-latitudes. Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, 3923-3926.
36. Vimont, D. J., J. M. Wallace, and S. Battisti, 2003: The seasonal footprinting mechanism in the Pacific: Implications for ENSO. J. Climate, 16, 2668-2675.
37. Wang, B., R. Wu, and R. Lukas, 1999: Roles of the western North Pacific wind variation in thermocline adjustment and ENSO phase transition. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 77, 1-16.
38. Wang, C., 2001: A unified oscillator model for the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. J. Climate, 14, 98-115.
39. Wang, X., F.-F. Jin, and Y. Wang, 2003: A tropical ocean recharge mechanism for climate variability. Part I: Equatorial heat content changes induced by the off-equatorial wind. J. Climate, 16, 3585-3598.
40. White, W. B., 1995: Design of a global observing system for gyrescale upper ocean temperature variability. Progress in Oceanography, Vol. 36, Pergamon Press, 169-217.