Contrasting Regional Responses of Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall to Exhausted Spring and Concurrently Emerging Summer El Ni?o Events

The inverse relationship between the warm phase of the El Ni?o Southern Oscillation(ENSO) and the Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall(ISMR) is well established. Yet, some El Ni?o events that occur in the early months of the year(boreal spring) transform into a neutral phase before the start of summer, whereas others begin in the boreal summer and persist in a positive phase throughout the summer monsoon season. This study investigates the distinct influences of an exhausted spring El Ni?o(springtime)...     

Robustness of SST teleconnections and precursory patterns associated with the Indian summer monsoon

This work attempts to reconcile in a common and comprehensive framework the various conflicting results found in the literature regarding Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) rainfall-Sea Surface Temperature (SST) relationships, especially the links with El-Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). To do so, we first examine the linear relationships between ISM rainfall and global SST anomalies during 1950–1976 and 1979–2006 periods. Our results highlight the existence of significant modulations in SST teleconnections and precursory patterns between the first (June–July, JJ) and second part (August–September, AS) of the monsoon. This JJ–AS rainfall dichotomy is more pronounced after the 1976–1977 climate regime shift and tends to blur the global ISM-ENSO signal during the recent period, leading to an apparent weakening of this relationship at the seasonal time scale. Although ISM rainfall in JJ and AS is still strongly linked to ENSO over both periods, the lead-lag relationships between ENSO and AS Indian rainfall have changed during recent decades. Indeed, ENSO variability in the preceding boreal winter has now a significant impact on rainfall variability during the second half of ISM. To evaluate in more details the impact of this JJ-AS dichotomy on the ISM-ENSO-IOD relationships, ISM correlations are also examined separately during El Ni?o and La Ni?a years. Results indicate that the early onset of El Ni?o during boreal spring causes deficient monsoon rainfall in JJ. In response to weaker monsoon winds, warm SST anomalies appear in the west equatorial IO, generating favorable conditions for the development of a positive IOD in AS. Local air-sea processes triggered by the SST anomalies in the eastern node of IOD seem, in turn, to have a more active role on AS rainfall variability, as they may counteract the negative effect of El Ni?o on ISM rainfall via a modulation of the local Hadley circulation in the eastern IO. The JJ–AS rainfall dichotomy and its recent amplification may then result from an enhancement of these IO feedbacks during recent El Ni?o years. This explains why, although El Ni?o events are stronger, a weakening of the ISM-ENSO relationship is observed at the seasonal scale after 1979. Results during La Ni?a years are consistent with this hypothesis although local processes in the southeast IO now play a more prominent role and act to further modulate ISM rainfall in AS. Finally, our results highlight the existence of a biennal rhythm of the IOD-ENSO-ISM system during the recent period, according to which co-occurring El Ni?o and positive IOD events tend to be followed by a warming of the IO, a wet ISM during summer and, finally, a La Ni?a event during the following boreal winter.     

The superior influence of Darwin Sea level pressure anomalies over ENSO as a simple drought predictor for Southern Africa

Summary The dominant climatic mode responsible for seasonal rainfall variability across central southern Africa has been well-established as ENSO. Hence, the El Ni?o signal of the equatorial Pacific has been used extensively to predict droughts in this sub-region. Although this paper acknowledges that El Ni?o influences rainfall deficits over eastern southern Africa, an earlier signal of extreme positive sea level pressure (SLP) anomalies at Darwin for the averaged March to June period (MAMJ Darwin) has proved to have a superior remote connection to droughts in the sub-region. Simple linear statistical tools including composite techniques and correlation methods have been employed on century long data sets (1901–2000) to identify the emerging paramount connection between MAMJ Darwin SLP anomalies and southern African rainfall. Both MAMJ Darwin SLP anomalies and the Zimbabwe seasonal rainfall time series are significantly correlated (above the 95% significant level) with sea surface temperature anomalies. These represent the Indian Ocean Dipole mode in the tropical Indian Ocean and ENSO in the tropical Pacific for the averaged September to December period. ‘Pure’ MAMJ Darwin (that occur in the absence of El Ni?o in the Pacific) coincide with droughts more significantly (83% hit rate) than ‘pure’ El Ni?o events (not preceded by a high MAMJ Darwin) (38% hit rate). Co-occurrences (MAMJ Darwin preceded by El Ni?o) do not only have the highest hit rate of 93% but subsequent droughts are noticeably more severe. The ‘pure’ El Ni?os however, are not only poorly related to Zimbabwe seasonal rainfall deficits, but are apparently not connected to extreme droughts of the 20^th century. Thus, MAMJ Darwin is a good simple predictor of droughts associated with or without ENSO in the Pacific. The high prediction skill of these results, especially the inherent longer lead-time than ENSO, makes MAMJ Darwin SLP anomalies an ideal additional input candidate for sub-regional drought monitoring and forecasting schemes. In this way, drought early warning and disaster preparedness activities can be enhanced over the sub-region. Authors’ addresses: D. Manatsa, W. Chingombe, H. Matsikwa, Faculty of Science, Bindura University of Science Education, P. Bag 1020, Bindura, Zimbabwe; C. H. Matarira, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, National University of Lesotho, Roma 180, Lesotho.     

ENSO and seasonal sea-level variability – A diagnostic discussion for the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands

Summary The El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate cycle is the basis for this paper, aimed at providing a diagnostic outlook on seasonal sea-level variability (i.e. anomalies with respect to the Climatology) for the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI). Results revealed that the sea-level variations in the northwestern tropical Pacific islands (e.g. Guam and Marshall Islands) have been found to be sensitive to ENSO-cycle, with low sea-level during El Ni?o and high sea-level during La Ni?a events. The annual cycle (first harmonic) of sea-level variability in these north Pacific islands has also been found to be very strong. The composites of SST and circulation diagnostic show that strong El Ni?o years feature stronger surface westerly winds in the equatorial western/central Pacific, which causes north Pacific islands to experience lower sea-level from July to December, while the sea-level in south Pacific islands (e.g. American Samoa) remains unchanged. As the season advances, the band of westerly winds propagates towards the south central tropical Pacific and moves eastward, which causes American Samoa to experience a lower sea-level from January to June, but with six months time lag as compared to Guam and the Marshalls. U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands are among the most vulnerable communities to climate variability and change. This study has identified the year-to-year ENSO climate cycle to have significant impact on the sea-level variability of these islands. Therefore, regular monitoring of the ENSO climate cycle features that affect seasonal sea-level variability would provide substantial opportunities to develop advance planning and decision options regarding hazard management in these islands.     

Intraseasonal and interannual zonal circulations over the Equatorial Indian Ocean

El Ni?o Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and given phases of the Madden?CJulian Oscillation (MJO) show similar regional signatures over the Equatorial Indian Ocean, consisting in an enhancement or reversing of the convective and dynamic zonal gradients between East Africa and the Maritime Continent of Indonesia. This study analyses how these two modes of variability add or cancel their effects at their respective timescales, through an investigation of the equatorial cellular circulations over the central Indian Ocean. Results show that (1) the wind shear between the lower and upper troposphere is related to marked regional rainfall anomalies and is embedded in larger-scale atmospheric configurations, involving the Southern Oscillation; (2) the intraseasonal (30?C60?days) and interannual (4?C5?years) timescales are the most energetic frequencies that modulate these circulations, confirming the implication of the MJO and ENSO; (3) extreme values of the Indian Ocean wind shear result from the combination of El Ni?o and the MJO phase enhancing atmospheric convection over Africa, or La Ni?a and the MJO phase associated with convective activity over the Maritime Continent. Consequences for regional rainfall anomalies over East Africa and Indonesia are then discussed.     

An Examination of ENSO’s Effect on the Monthly and Seasonal Climate of Hong Kong from a Statistical Perspective

This study aims to examine the effect of El Nino and La Nina on the monthly and seasonal climate of Hong Kong against the ENSO-neutral situation from a statistical perspective. Monthly and seasonal temperature and rainfall of Hong Kong and monthly number of tropical cyclones (TCs) coming within 500 km of the city over the 59-yr (1950-2008) period are examined under three ENSO situations, namely El Nino, La Nina, and ENSO-neutral. It is found that, compared with the ENSO-neutral situation, El Nino tends...     

观测分析El Ni?o衰减早晚对南亚与青藏高原夏季降水和气温的影响

El Ni?o（厄尔尼诺）事件对东亚和南亚次年夏季降水影响及其机理已经得到充分研究,但其对夏季青藏高原降水是否有显著影响还不清楚。本研究根据1950年后El Ni?o事件次年衰减期演变速度,对比分析衰减早型与晚型El Ni?o事件对南亚季风区与青藏高原夏季（6～9月）季节平均和月平均气候影响差异。结果显示在衰减早型次年夏季热带太平洋海温转为La Ni?a（拉尼娜）型且持续发展,引起Walker环流上升支西移,印度洋和南亚季风区上升运动加强,同时激发异常西北太平洋反气旋（NWPAC）,阿拉伯海异常气旋和伊朗高原异常反气旋性环流响应,增加7～9月对流层偏南气流和印度洋水汽输送,导致南亚和高原西南侧降水偏多。衰减晚型次年6～8月热带太平洋El Ni?o型海温仍维持,印度洋暖异常海温显著,对应的印度洋和南亚季风区上升运动较弱,NWPAC西伸控制南亚季风区,阿拉伯海和中西亚分别呈现异常反气旋和气旋性环流,导致青藏高原西风加强,水汽输送减少,南亚北部和高原降水一致偏少。结果表明:（1）El Ni?o显著影响次年青藏高原西南部夏季季节和月平均降水与温度,是印度和高原西南部夏季降水显著相关的重要原因;（2）El Ni?o衰减快慢速度对南亚和青藏高原西南部夏季季节内降水的影响有着重要差异。     

Multivariate ENSO index and Indian monsoon rainfall: relationships on monthly and subdivisional scales

Summary El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is known to cause world-wide weather anomalies. It influences the Indian Monsoon Rainfall (IMR) also. But due to large spatial and temporal variability of monsoon rains, it becomes difficult to state any single uniform relationship between the ENSO and IMR that holds good over different subdivisions of India, though the general type of relationship between all India monsoon rainfall and ENSO is known since long. The selection of the most suitable ENSO index to correlate with the IMR is another problem. The purpose of the present study is twofold, namely, to examine the relationship between the ENSO and IMR for entire monsoon season by using an ENSO index which represents the ENSO phenomenon in a comprehensive way, namely, the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI) and to establish the relationships between MEI and IMR for every meteorological subdivision of India for each monsoon month; i.e. June, July, August and September. A comparison of MEI/IMR correlations has been made with Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)/IMR correlations. The result may find applications in the long range forecasting of IMR on monthly and subdivisional scales, especially over the high monsoon rainfall variability regions of Northwestern and the Peninsular India. Received October 27, 2000     

近65年ENSO事件强度变化及时频特征研究

利用海洋尼诺指数(ONI)、南方涛动指数(SOI)和多变量ENSO指数(MEI)等ENSO特征值分析了1951年1月—2016年5月近65年ENSO事件的强度与时频特征,并将其强度划分为5个等级。结果表明:近65年共发生22次暖事件（El Ni?o）和13次冷事件（La Ni?a）;对ENSO特征值进行频次分析发现,强El Ni?o月份所占比例比强La Ni?a多;使用连续小波、交叉小波和小波相干分析得出,ENSO循环主要具有2~7 a的周期,还具有10~16 a的年代际变化。      

Hydro-climatic variability over the Andes of Colombia associated with ENSO: a review of climatic processes and their impact on one of the Earth��s most important biodiversity hotspots

The hydro-climatic variability of the Colombian Andes associated with El Ni?o?CSouthern Oscillation (ENSO) is reviewed using records of rainfall, river discharges, soil moisture, and a vegetation index (NDVI) as a surrogate for evapotranspiration. Anomalies in the components of the surface water balance during both phases of ENSO are quantified in terms of their sign, timing, and magnitude. During El Ni?o (La Ni?a), the region experiences negative (positive) anomalies in rainfall, river discharges (average and extremes), soil moisture, and NDVI. ENSO??s effects are phase-locked to the seasonal cycle, being stronger during December?CFebruary, and weaker during March?CMay. Besides, rainfall and river discharges anomalies show that the ENSO signal exhibits a westerly wave-like propagation, being stronger (weaker) and earlier (later) over the western (eastern) Andes. Soil moisture anomalies are land-cover type dependant, but overall they are enhanced by ENSO, showing very low values during El Ni?o (mainly during dry seasons), but saturation values during La Ni?a. A suite of large-scale and regional mechanisms cooperating at the ocean?Catmosphere?Cland system are reviewed to explaining the identified hydro-climatic anomalies. This review contributes to an understanding of the hydro-climatic framework of a region identified as the most critical hotspot for biodiversity on Earth, and constitutes a wake-up call for scientists and policy-makers alike, to take actions and mobilize resources and minds to prevent the further destruction of the region??s valuable hydrologic and biodiversity resources and ecosystems. It also sheds lights towards the implementation of strategies and adaptation plans to coping with threats from global environmental change.     

Sensitivity of the tropical Pacific seasonal cycle and ENSO to changes in mean state induced by a surface heat flux adjustment in CCSM3

The influence of mean climate on the seasonal cycle and the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the tropical Pacific climate is investigated using the Climate Community System Model Version 3 (CCSM3). An empirical time-independent surface heat flux adjustment over the tropical ocean is applied to the oceanic component of CCSM3. In comparison with the control run, the heat flux-adjusted run simulates a more realistic mean climate not only for the sea surface temperature (SST) but also for wind stress and precipitation. Even though the heat flux adjustment is time-independent, the seasonal cycles of SST, wind stress and precipitation over the equatorial eastern Pacific are more realistic in the flux-adjusted simulation. Improvements in the representation of the ENSO variability in the heat flux-adjusted simulation include that the Nino3.4 SST index is less regular than a strong biennial oscillation in the control run. But some deficiencies also arise. For example, the amplitude of the ENSO variability is reduced in the flux-adjusted run. The impact of the mean climate on ENSO prediction is further examined by performing a series of monthly hindcasts from 1982 to 1998 using CCSM3 with and without the heat flux adjustment. The flux-adjusted hindcasts show slightly higher predictive skill than the unadjusted hindcasts with January initial conditions at lead times of 7?C9?months and July initial conditions at lead times of 9?C11?months. However, their differences during these months are not statistically significant.     

Contributions to the Interannual Summer Rainfall Variability in the Mountainous Area of Central China and Their Decadal Changes

Using a high-resolution precipitation dataset,the present study detected that the mountainous area of central China(MACA)is a hotspot of ENSO’s impact on the summer rainfall variability.Further analysis suggests that both ENSO and atmospheric forcing make contributions to the summer rainfall variability in MACA.The dominant rainfall-related SST mode features as a seasonal transition from an El Niño-like warming in the preceding winter to a La Nina-like cooling in the following autumn,and it explains about 29%of the total variance of the rainfall during 1951–2018.It indicates that ENSO with a rapid phase transition is responsible for inducing summer rainfall anomalies in MACA.Besides,an upperlevel circumglobal wave mode in the Northern Hemisphere during summer also explains about 29%of the summer rainfall variance.Contributions of both the SST and the atmospheric modes have experienced interdecadal changes.The influence of the SST mode gradually increases and plays a dominant role in the recent decades,suggesting that ENSO with a rapid phase transition becomes more important for rainfall prediction in MACA.     

The influence of stochasticism on Indian summer monsoon rainfall and its impact on prediction

Output from a multi-millennial control simulation of the CSIRO Mark 2 coupled model has been used to investigate quantitatively the relation between the Indian summer monsoon rain and El Nino/Southern Oscillation events. A moving window correlation between these two features revealed marked interannual and multi-decadal variability with the correlation coefficient varying between ?0.8 and +0.2. This suggests that current observations showing a decline in this correlation are due to natural climatic variability. A scatter diagram of the anomalies of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall and NINO 3.4 surface temperature showed that in almost 40 % of the cases ENSO events were associated with rainfall anomalies opposite to those implied by the climatological correlation coefficient. Case studies and composites of global distributions of surface temperature and rainfall anomalies for El Nino (or La Nina) events highlight the opposite rainfall anomalies over India that can result from very similar ENSO surface temperature anomalies. Composite differences are used to demonstrate the unique sensitivity of Indian summer monsoon rainfall anomalies to ENSO events. The problem of predicting such anomalies is discussed in relation to the fact that time series of the monsoon rainfall, both observed and simulated, consist of white noise. Based on the scatter diagram it is concluded that in about 60 % of the cases seasonal or annual prediction of monsoon rainfall based on individual ENSO events will result in the correct outcome. Unfortunately, there is no way, a priori, of determining for a given ENSO event whether the correct or a rogue prediction will result. Analysis of the present model’s results suggest that this is an almost world-wide problem for seasonal predictions of rainfall.     

Pacific and Atlantic influences on Mesoamerican climate over the past millennium

A new tree-ring reconstruction of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for Mesoamerica from AD 771 to 2008 identifies megadroughts more severe and sustained than any witnessed during the twentieth century. Correlation analyses indicate strong forcing of instrumental and reconstructed June PDSI over Mesoamerica from the El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Spectral analyses of the 1,238-year reconstruction indicate significant concentrations of variance at ENSO, sub-decadal, bi-decadal, and multidecadal timescales. Instrumental and model-based analyses indicate that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation is important to warm season climate variability over Mexico. Ocean-atmospheric variability in the Atlantic is not strongly correlated with the June PDSI reconstruction during the instrumental era, but may be responsible for the strong multidecadal variance detected in the reconstruction episodically over the past millennium. June drought indices in Mesoamerica are negatively correlated with gridded June PDSI over the United States from 1950 to 2005, based on both instrumental and reconstructed data. Interannual variability in this latitudinal moisture gradient is due in part to ENSO forcing, where warm events favor wet June PDSI conditions over the southern US and northern Mexico, but dryness over central and southern Mexico (Mesoamerica). Strong anti-phasing between multidecadal regimes of tree-ring reconstructed June PDSI over Mesoamerica and reconstructed summer (JJA) PDSI over the Southwest has also been detected episodically over the past millennium, including the 1950–1960s when La Ni?a and warm Atlantic SSTs prevailed, and the 1980–1990s when El Ni?o and cold Atlantic SSTs prevailed. Several Mesoamerican megadroughts are reconstructed when wetness prevailed over the Southwest, including the early tenth century Terminal Classic Drought, implicating El Ni?o and Atlantic SSTs in this intense and widespread drought that may have contributed to social changes in ancient Mexico.     

Space-time spectra of the atmospheric intraseasonal variability in the extratropics and their dependency on the El Niño/Southern Oscillation phenomenon: model versus observation

By comparing the results obtained from two sets of simulations with the ECHAM3 and the ECHAM4 atmospheric general circulation models with results derived from the ECMWF re-analyses, we not only investigate the models’ capability to reproduce aspects of the intraseasonal variability in the extratropics realistically, but also evaluate the impact of the changes between the two different versions of the ECHAM model. Moreover, we assess the impact of the marked variations of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon on the characteristics of the intraseasonal variability in the midlatitudes. Both models realistically reproduce many aspects of the intraseasonal variability in the extratropics, i.e. the partition of the variability into the contributions of the transient cell and of the stationary and transient eddies and its seasonal variation, and also the spectral distribution of the contribution of the transient waves to the intraseasonal variability. The most severe deficiency of the models is a considerable underestimation of the contributions of the transient waves to the intraseasonal variability, mainly in the low-frequency part of the spectrum. In the recent version of the ECHAM model (ECHAM4) some of the model’s shortcomings in simulating the intraseasonal variability realistically, in particular those in the Southern Hemisphere, are noticeably reduced compared to the previous version (ECHAM3). Yet some aspects are more realistically captured by ECHAM3. Both the ECMWF re-analyses and the two sets of simulations with the ECHAM models reveal a distinct impact of the ENSO phenomenon on the characteristics of the intraseasonal variability within the extratropics in boreal winter. In the Northern Hemisphere the most prominent effect is that the activity of the stationary waves is enhanced during El Niño events at the expense of the transient waves. In the Southern Hemisphere, on the other hand, all the different contributions to the variance on intraseasonal time scales (transient cell, transient and stationary eddies) are stronger during El Niño than during La Niña events. Concerning the transient waves, this mainly reflects changes in the low-frequency part of the spectrum associated with the activity of ultra-long planetary waves.     

ENSO induced monthly oscillations of precipitation: the unique case of the south tropical Indian Ocean in austral summer

Seasonal (three-month average) climate forecasts have advanced due in large part to improved modeling of the ENSO phenomenon. Long-range monthly forecasts are more problematic because of internal atmospheric variability. Further, it is often assumed that monthly precipitation anomalies are representative of the overall seasonal anomaly. This is not always the case as, according to the Global Precipitation Climatology Project Version 2.1 data set, up to 20% of areas demonstrating some significant teleconnection to ENSO show El Ni?o minus La Ni?a differences of one sign in the middle month and the opposite sign in the adjacent months. Most interestingly, this maximum percentage occurs in December–January–February (DJF), a time when the ENSO boundary forcing is strongest. These oscillatory DJF seasons also cluster in space—with significant positive–negative-positive differences in the western South Tropical Indian Ocean (STIO) and negative–positive–negative differences in the far eastern STIO. Representative gauges confirm that these precipitation patterns have been associated with ENSO events since 1951, and pentad precipitation data confirm that they are confined to DJF and evolve at the monthly scale. The abrupt end of the Indian Ocean Dipole mode in January, an increase in the importance of local SST anomalies in February, and an ENSO-induced mid-latitude Rossby wave during austral summer combine to generate the cross-basin precipitation gradient around 15°S.     

IMPACT OF LATENT HEAT FLUX ON INDIAN SUMMER MONSOON DURING EL NI?O/LA NI?A YEARS

El Nio or La Nia manifest in December over the Pacific and will serve as an index for the forecasting of subsequent Indian summer monsoon,which occurs from June to mid-September.In the present article,an attempt is made to study the variation of latent heat flux (LHF) over the north Indian Ocean during strong El Nio and strong La Nia and relate it with Indian monsoon rainfall.During strong El Nio the LHF intensity is higher and associated with higher wind speed and lower cloud amount.During El Nio all India rainfall is having an inverse relation with LHF.Seasonal rainfall is higher in YY+1 (subsequent year) than YY (year of occurrence).However there is a lag in rainfall during El Nio YY+1 from June to July when compared with the monthly rainfall.     

Links between Indo-Pacific climate variability and drought in the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas

Drought patterns across monsoon and temperate Asia over the period 1877–2005 are linked to Indo-Pacific climate variability associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). Using the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas (MADA) composed of a high-resolution network of hydroclimatically sensitive tree-ring records with a focus on the June–August months, spatial drought patterns during El Niño and IOD events are assessed as to their agreement with an instrumental drought index and consistency in the drought response amongst ENSO/IOD events. Spatial characteristics in drought patterns are related to regional climate anomalies over the Indo-Pacific basin, using reanalysis products, including changes in the Asian monsoon systems, zonal Walker circulation, moisture fluxes, and precipitation. A weakening of the monsoon circulation over the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia during El Niño events, along with anomalous subsidence over monsoon Asia and reduced moisture flux, is reflected in anomalous drought conditions over India, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. When an IOD event co-occurs with an El Niño, severe drought conditions identified in the MADA for Southeast Asia, Indonesia, eastern China and central Asia are associated with a weakened South Asian monsoon, reduced moisture flux over China, and anomalous divergent flow and subsidence over Indonesia. Insights into the relative influences of Pacific and Indian Ocean variability for Asian monsoon climate on interannual to decadal and longer timescales, as recorded in the MADA, provide a useful tool for assessing long-term changes in the characteristics of Asian monsoon droughts in the context of Indo-Pacific climate variability.     

A New Index About the Walker Circulation

The Walker circulation (WC) has always been an important issue in atmospheric science research due to the association between the WC and tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST), and between the WC and ENSO events. In this paper, a new index-Omega index (OMGI) - is constructed for WC characterization based on the NCEP / NCAR reanalysis data of monthly mean vertical velocity in recent 70 years (1948-2017). Results show that the OMGI can accurately depict the variation characteristics of WC on seasonal, annual and decadal time-scales. There is a significant inverse correlation between the OMGI and equatorial eastern and central Pacific SST. Meanwhile, the peak of the OMGI appears ahead of the ENSO peak, and therefore is able to reflect the SST in the equatorial Pacific. Especially, in 35 ENSO events, the peak of the OMGI appears earlier than Ni?o 3.4 index for 19 times with 2.6 months ahead on average. In 16 El Ni?o events, the peak of the OMGI occurs ahead of the El Ni?o for 9 times with 4 months ahead on average. In 19 La Ni?a events, the OMGI peak arises 10 times earlier than the La Ni?a peak, with an average of 1.4 months ahead. OMGI shows obvious leading effect and stability over ENSO events with different strengths and types of single peak and multi peaks: the peak of the OMGI keeps about 2-3 months ahead of the ENSO. Compared with other WC indexes such as UWI and SPLI, OMGI has some advantages in the ability to describe WC changes and present the probability and thetime of prediction of ENSO event peaks.