Dynamics of the Indian monsoon and ENSO relationships in the SINTEX global coupled model

This paper uses recent gridded climatological data and a coupled general circulation model (GCM) simulation in order to assess the relationships between the interannual variability of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The focus is on the dynamics of the ISM-ENSO relationships and the ability of the state-of-the-art coupled GCM to reproduce the complex lead-lag relationships between the ISM and the ENSO. The coupled GCM is successful in reproducing the ISM circulation and rainfall climatology in the Indian areas even though the entire ISM circulation is weaker relative to that observed. In both observations and in the simulation, the ISM rainfall anomalies are significantly associated with fluctuations of the Hadley circulation and the 200 hPa zonal wind anomalies over the Indian Ocean. A quasi-biennial time scale is found to structure the ISM dynamical and rainfall indices in both cases. Moreover, ISM indices have a similar interannual variability in the simulation and observations. The coupled model is less successful in simulating the annual cycle in the tropical Pacific. A major model bias is the eastward displacement of the western North Pacific inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), near the dateline, during northern summer. This introduces a strong semiannual component in Pacific Walker circulation indices and central equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures. Another weakness of the coupled model is a less-than-adequate simulation of the Southern Oscillation due to an erroneous eastward extension of the Southern Pacific convergence zone (SPCZ) year round. Despite these problems, the coupled model captures some aspects of the interannual variability in the tropical Pacific. ENSO events are phase-locked with the annual cycle as observed, but are of reduced amplitude relative to the observations. Wavelet analysis of the model Niño34 time series shows enhanced power in the 2–4 year band, as compared to the 2–8 year range for observations during the 1950–2000 period. The ISM circulation is weakened during ENSO years in both the simulation and the observations. However, the model fails to reproduce the lead-lag relationship between the ISM and Niño34 sea surface temperatures (SSTs). Furthermore, lag correlations show that the delayed response of the wind stress over the central Pacific to ISM variability is insignificant in the simulation. These features are mainly due to the unrealistic interannual variability simulated by the model in the western North Pacific. The amplitude and even the sign of the simulated surface and upper level wind anomalies in these areas are not consistent with observed patterns during weak/strong ISM years. The ISM and western North Pacific ITCZ fluctuate independently in the observations, while they are negatively and significantly correlated in the simulation. This isolates the Pacific Walker circulation from the ISM forcing. These systematic errors may also contribute to the reduced amplitude of ENSO variability in the coupled simulation. Most of the unrealistic features in simulating the Indo-Pacific interannual variability may be traced back to systematic errors in the base state of the coupled model.     

Air–Sea Flux Estimates And The 1997–1998 Enso Event

Bulk formulae for wind stress, sensible and latent heat flux are presented that are suitable for strong mesoscale events such as westerly wind bursts that contribute to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Their exchange coefficients for heat and momentum have a simple polynomial dependence on wind speed and a linear dependence on air–sea temperature difference. The accuracy of these formulae are validated with respect to air–sea fluxes estimated using the standard algorithm adopted by the Tropical Ocean-Global AtmosphereCoupled-Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). The comparison ismade for observations from 96 Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array and National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) moorings in the equatorial and North Pacific Ocean spanning years 1990–1999. The bulk formulae are shown to have very small median root–mean-square differences with respect to the TOGA COARE estimates: 0.003 N m^-2, 1.0 W m^-2, and 10.0 W m^-2 for the wind stress, sensible heat flux, and latent heat flux, respectively.The variability of air–sea fluxes during the 1997–1998 ENSO is also examined, along with a possible relationship between air–sea fluxes and surface ocean mixed layer depth (MLD). The wind stress and latent heat flux during the 1997 El Niño are found to be greater in the warm pool of the western Pacific than in the central Pacific where the ENSO is most clearly seen. These differences disappear upon the start of La Niña. The MLD in the equatorial Pacific is found to be moderately correlated to air–sea fluxes just before the start of the 1998 La Niña and poorly correlated otherwise.     

Large-Scale Temperature Changes across the Southern Andes: 20th-Century Variations in the Context of the Past 400 Years

Long-term trends of temperature variations across the southern Andes (37–55° S) are examined using a combination of instrumental and tree-ring records. A critical appraisal of surface air temperature from station records is presented for southern South America during the 20th century. For the interval 1930–1990, three major patterns in temperature trends are identified. Stations along the Pacific coast between 37 and 43° S are characterized by negative trends in mean annual temperature with a marked cooling period from 1950 to the mid-1970s. A clear warming trend is observed in the southern stations (south of 46°S), which intensifies at higher latitudes. No temperature trends are detected for the stations on the Atlantic coast north of 45° S. In contrast to higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere where annual changes in temperature are dominated by winter trends, both positive and negative trends in southern South America are due to mostly changes in summer (December to February) temperatures. Changes in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) around 1976 are felt in summer temperatures at most stations in the Pacific domain, starting a period with increased temperature across the southern Andes and at higher latitudes.Tree-ring records from upper-treeline were used to reconstruct past temperature fluctuations for the two dominant patterns over the southern Andes. These reconstructions extend back to 1640 and are based on composite tree-ring chronologies that were processed to retain as much low-frequency variance as possible. The resulting reconstructions for the northern and southern sectors of the southern Andes explain 55% and 45% ofthe temperature variance over the interval 1930–1989, respectively. Cross-spectral analysis of actual and reconstructed temperatures over the common interval 1930–1989, indicates that most of the explained varianceis at periods >10 years in length. At periods >15 years, the squaredcoherency between actual and reconstructed temperatures ranges between 0.6 and 0.95 for both reconstructions. Consequently, these reconstructions are especially useful for studying multi-decennial temperature variations in the South American sector of the Southern Hemisphere over the past 360 years. As a result, it is possible to show that the temperatures during the 20thcentury have been anomalously warm across the southern Andes. The mean annual temperatures for the northern and southern sectors during the interval 1900–1990 are 0.53 °C and 0.86 °C above the1640–1899 means, respectively. These findings placed the current warming in a longer historical perspective, and add new support for the existence of unprecedented 20th century warming over much of the globe. The rate of temperature increase from 1850 to 1920 was the highest over the past 360 years, a common feature observed in several proxy records from higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.Local temperature regimes are affected by changes in planetary circulation, with in turn are linked to global sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. Therefore, we explored how temperature variations in the southern Andes since 1856 are related to large-scale SSTs on the South Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans. Spatial correlation patterns between the reconstructions and SSTs show that temperature variations in the northern sector of the southern Andes are strongly connected with SST anomalies in the tropical and subtropical Pacific. This spatial correlation pattern resembles the spatial signature of the PDO mode of SST variability over the South Pacific and is connected with the Pacific-South American (PSA) atmospheric pattern in the Southern Hemisphere. In contrast, temperature variations in the southern sector of the southern Andes are significantly correlated with SST anomalies over most of the South Atlantic, and in less degree, over the subtropical Pacific. This spatial correlation field regressed against SST resembles the `Global Warming' mode of SST variability, which in turn, is linked to the leading mode of circulation in the Southern Hemisphere. Certainly, part of the temperature signal present in the reconstructions can be expressed as a linear combination of four orthogonal modes of SST variability. Rotated empirical orthogonal function analysis, performed on SST across the South Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans, indicate that four discrete modes of SST variability explain a third, approximately, of total variance in temperature fluctuations across the southern Andes.     

全球海洋蒸发量年代际变化归因：动力因子分析

本文基于动力调整方法,利用客观分析海气通量（OAFlux）资料研究了1958～2016年全球海洋蒸发量变化及其动力作用和辐射强迫分量的变化,发现海洋蒸发量及其动力作用分量具有一致性年代际变化特征,特别是在20世纪70年代及90年代末期存在明显的年代际转折。进一步分析发现:主要动力因子有太平洋—北美遥相关型（PNA）、北极涛动（AO）、北大西洋涛动（NAO）、厄尔尼诺—南方涛动（ENSO）和阿留申低压（AL）,并受到太平洋年代际振荡（PDO）的影响,其中,1970年代末期的转折与PNA、PDO、ENSO和AL密切相关,而1990年代末期的转折还与NAO变化有关。动力作用分量的前六个模态解释方差达到67.5%,其中,低纬北太平洋和印度洋蒸发异常主要与海表温度（SST）及其引起的环流异常有关,南太平洋、中纬北太平洋和北大西洋蒸发异常与环流异常直接相关。ENSO与PDO在全球海洋蒸发量上的影响要大于NAO。单因子相关分析发现南方涛动指数（SOI）、NAO和PDO与海洋蒸发年代际变化密切相关。总体来说,动力作用分量在海洋蒸发的年代际变化中起主导作用,其中,以ENSO、NAO和PDO的影响最大。     

The large-scale context for the TOGA Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment

Summary The TOGA Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) concentrated a variety of observational systems in the warm pool of the western equatorial Pacific for an Intensive Observation Period (IOP) November 1992 through February 1993. In this paper, aspects of the largescale variations of the tropical atmosphere and Pacific Ocean surrounding the observations of air-sea interaction in the Intensive Flux Array (IFA) during the IOP are described, with the objective of providing a context for the future analyses of these observations.The evolution of the 1991–1992 El Niño/Southern Oscillation event was unusual: Warm SST anomalies in the equatorial cold tongue region switched to colder than climatology in the last half of 1992, but waters warmer than 30°C remained displaced eastward just west of the dateline, coninuing to fuel anomalous convection there during the IOP. Fortunately, SST in the IFA remained warmer than 29°C during most of the IOP, and convective activity was observed over the IFA. The Southern Oscillation Index, which had relaxed to near zero prior to the experiment, decreased during the IOP, reflecting sea level presure changes associated with renewed westerly wind activity. In response to these westerly wind events, the warm pool migrated back into the central equatorial Pacific, leading to a reintensification of the ENSO warm SST anomalies east of the dateline.With 10 Figures     

Interdecadal Change in the Relationship Between the North Pacific Oscillation and the Pacific Meridional Mode and Its Impact on ENSO

Two leading but independent modes of Northern Pacific atmospheric circulation: the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) and the Pacific Meridional Mode (PMM), are known external triggers of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) by the sequential migration of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies into the tropics possibly by means of wind-evaporation-SST (WES) feedbacks. Because of the similar roles of NPO and PMM, most previous studies have explored them with no separation. Here, we investigate their independent and combined effects in triggering ENSO, and find that when the NPO and PMM occur simultaneously during spring, ENSO or ENSO-like SST anomalies are generated during the following winter; whereas when either the NPO or PMM occur alone, ENSO events rarely occur. Furthermore, the relationship between NPO and PMM shows noticeable interdecadal variability, which is related to decadal changes in the mean upper-level jet stream over the North Pacific. Changes in the upper-level jet stream modify the location of the center of the Aleutian Low, which plays a role in bridging the NPO and PMM processes, especially when it migrates to the southwest. The period when NPO and PMM are well correlated coincides somewhat with the active ENSO period, and vice versa, indicating that a more efficient trigger due to combined NPO-PMM processes results in a higher variation of ENSO. Finally, analysis of the coupled model control simulations strongly supports our observational analysis results.     

Aridity changes in the Temperate-Mediterranean transition of the Andes since ad 1346 reconstructed from tree-rings

The Andes Cordillera acts as regional ??Water Towers?? for several countries and encompasses a wide range of ecosystems and climates. Several hydroclimatic changes have been described for portions of the Andes during recent years, including glacier retreat, negative precipitation trends, an elevation rise in the 0° isotherm, and changes in regional streamflow regimes. The Temperate-Mediterranean transition (TMT) zone of the Andes (35.5°?C39.5°S) is particularly at risk to climate change because it is a biodiversity hotspot with heavy human population pressure on water resources. In this paper we utilize a new tree-ring network of Austrocedrus chilensis to reconstruct past variations in regional moisture in the TMT of the Andes by means of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI). The reconstruction covers the past 657?years and captures interannual to decadal scales of variability in late spring?Cearly summer PDSI. These changes are related to the north?Csouth oscillations in moisture conditions between the Mediterranean and Temperate climates of the Andes as a consequence of the latitudinal position of the storm tracks forced by large-scale circulation modes. Kernel estimation of occurrence rates reveals an unprecedented increment of severe and extreme drought events during the last century in the context of the previous six centuries. Moisture conditions in our study region are linked to tropical and high-latitude ocean-atmospheric forcing, with PDSI positively related to Ni?o-3.4 SST during spring and strongly negatively correlated with the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO) during summer. Geopotential anomaly maps at 500-hPa show that extreme dry years are tightly associated with negative height anomalies in the Ross?CAmundsen Seas, in concordance with the strong negative relationship between PDSI and AAO. The twentieth century increase in extreme drought events in the TMT may not be related to ENSO but to the positive AAO trend during late-spring and summer resulting from a gradual poleward shift of the mid-latitude storm tracks. This first PDSI reconstruction for South America demonstrates the highly significant hindcast skill of A. chilensis as an aridity proxy.     

Nonlinear interdecadal changes of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation

Nonlinear interdecadal changes in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon are investigated using several tools: a nonlinear canonical correlation analysis (NLCCA) method based on neural networks, a hybrid coupled model, and the delayed oscillator theory. The leading NLCCA mode between the tropical Pacific wind stress (WS) and sea surface temperature (SST) reveals notable interdecadal changes of ENSO behaviour before and after the mid 1970s climate regime shift, with greater nonlinearity found during 1981–99 than during 1961–75. Spatial asymmetry (for both SST and WS anomalies) between warm El Niño and cool La Niña events was significantly enhanced in the later period. During 1981–99, the location of the equatorial easterly anomalies was unchanged from the earlier period, but in the opposite ENSO phase, the westerly anomalies were shifted eastward by up to 25°. According to the delayed oscillator theory, such an eastward shift would lengthen the duration of the warm events by up to 45%, but leave the duration of the cool events unchanged. Supporting evidence was found from a hybrid coupled model built with the Lamont dynamical ocean model coupled to a statistical atmospheric model consisting of either the leading NLCCA or CCA mode.     

A GLOBAL VIEW OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENSO AND TROPICAL CYCLONE FREQUENCIES

The relationship between tropical cyclone activity and ENSO is examined for the major cyclone regions using crosscorrelations,spectral analysis and composite analysis of eastern equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature,thenormalised monthly Southern Oscillation Index(SOI),and tropical cyclone frequencies.The closest relationship betweenthe 3—4 year ENSO period and tropical cyclone activity was found in the western North Pacific west of 160°E and thereseems to be significant potential for seasonal forecasting in this region based on ENSO parameters alone.No significantrelationships were found for the North Indian Ocean,and the remainder of the basins were dominated by oscillationsnear the quasi-biennial period.Physical explanations and forecasting of the seasonal variations in tropical cyclone num-bers in these regions will need to account for the QBO as well as the 3—4 year ENSO connections.     

一个新的ENSO监测指标的研究

利用1982～1996年逐月平均SST和OLR资料,首先通过奇异值分解（SVD）技术研究了热带太平洋大气对流活动和海温场的时间和空间结构及其相互关系。结果表明,第一模态都明显地反映出ENSO信息,两场间具有很高的相关。分析了80年代以来的E1 Ni?o/La Ni?a盛期的热带太平洋对流活动场以及NINO 3指数与OLR场的点相关,结果指出,中东太平洋和西太平洋上存在类似偶极子型的两个符号相反的相关区,与SVD第一模态空间分布型十分相似。由此建立了反映ENSO期间热带中东太平洋和西太平洋反向变化的对流涛动     

Interdecadal Modulation of AMO on the Winter North Pacific Oscillation-Following Winter ENSO Relationship

It is known that the wintertime North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) is an important extratropical forcing for the occurrence of an El Ni?o?Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event in the subsequent winter via the “seasonal footprinting mechanism” (SFM). This study reveals that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) can notably modulate the relationship between the winter NPO and the following winter ENSO. During the negative AMO phase, the winter NPO has significant impacts on the following winter ENSO via the SFM. In contrast, the influence of the winter NPO on ENSO is not robust at all during the positive AMO phase. Winter NPO-generated westerly wind anomalies over the equatorial western Pacific during the following spring are much stronger during negative than positive AMO phases. It is suggested that the AMO impacts the winter NPO-induced equatorial westerly winds over the western Pacific via modulating the precipitation climatology over the tropical central Pacific and via modulating the connection of the winter NPO with spring sea surface temperature in the tropical North Atlantic.     

Low-frequency time-space regimes in tropical convection

Summary The multi-scale time-space regimes of the low-frequency convective activity over the maritime continent and tropical western Pacific are investigated using the monthly infrared radiance black body temperature (IRTBB) over a latitude band of 5S–9S, 80E–160W for the time period of 1980–1993. The complex Morlet wavelet transform and the complex empirical orthogonal function (CEOF) analysis are used. The zonal mean of the monthly IRTBB is dominated by the annual cycle which is influenced by a monsoon regime. An interannual signal around the time scale of 4.8-year and a decadal signal are obvious. In the zonal deviation, each CEOF represents a particular spatial regime; its corresponding principal component exhibits different multi-scale temporal behavior. The first leading component represents the variability due to large scale land-ocean distribution (the maritime continent, the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific) related to monsoon, with a dominant annual time scale. The second leading component represents the fluctuation of Walker circulation, associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events having a main time scale around 4.8-year and the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) around 2.4-year. The third leading component represents the variability due to small-scale land-ocean distribution (Java, New Guinea and the surrounding seas), with a dominant annual time scale. The main time scales in all the components seem to be modulated by longer time scales in either amplitude or frequency or both.Different time scales, as well as their in-phase interference, may play different roles in developing an individual ENSO event. The 1982/1983 event is dominated by an enhanced QBO. The 1986/1987 event is dominated by an enhanced 4.8-year oscillation. The 1991 and 1993 events may have resulted from an in-phase interference among several interannual time scales, abnormal annual cycles, and also highfrequency variability.SAIC/General Sciences Corporation.With 6 Figures     

ENSO influence on Europe during the last centuries

El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects climate not only in the Pacific region and the tropics, but also in the North Atlantic-European area. Studies based on twentieth-century data have found that El Niño events tend to be accompanied in late winter by a negative North Atlantic Oscillation index, low temperatures in northeastern Europe and a change in precipitation patterns. However, many questions are open, for example, concerning the stationarity of this relation. Here we study the relation between ENSO and European climate during the past 500 years based on statistically reconstructed ENSO indices, early instrumental station series, and reconstructed fields of surface air temperature, sea-level pressure, precipitation, and 500 hPa geopotential height. After removing years following tropical volcanic eruptions (which systematically mask the ENSO signal), we find a consistent and statistically significant ENSO signal in late winter and spring. The responses to El Niño and La Niña are close to symmetric. In agreement with studies using twentieth-century data only, the ENSO signal in precipitation is different in fall than in late winter. Moving correlation analyses confirm a stationary relationship between ENSO and late winter climate in Europe during the past 300 years. However, the ENSO signal is modulated significantly by the North Pacific climate. A multi-field cluster analysis for strong ENSO events during the past 300 years yields a dominant pair of clusters that is symmetric and represents the ‘classical’ ENSO effects on Europe.     

ENSO现象和火山爆发对我国东部雨带的影响

ENSO现象对夏季我国天气有重要影响。当南方涛动（SO）偏弱并出现ENSO现象时，通过增强的Hadley环流的作用，它一般会使夏季西太平洋副高偏强西伸；同时，副高脊线和北侧的季风雨带位置除受到南方涛动指数（SOI）影响外，还受到平流层火山云影响即以晴空太阳直接辐射量（S）为表征的作用。由于S有显著年际振荡，我国盛夏季风雨带的位置可以有相当的差异。根据分析，作了1983、1987年夏季多雨的预报。     

Southeastern U.S. Vegetation Response to ENSO Events (1989–1999)

El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is considered one of the most powerful forces driving anomalous global weather patterns. Large-scale seasonal precipitation and temperature changes influenced by ENSO have been examined in many areas of the world. The southeastern United States is one of the regions affected by ENSO events. In this study, remote sensing detection of vegetation response to ENSO phases is demonstrated with one-kilometer biweekly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data (1989–1999) derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer(AVHRR). The impacts of three ENSO phases, cold, warm and neutral, on vegetation were analyzed with a focus on two vegetation cover types, two seasons and two geographic regions within the southeastern U.S. Significant ENSO effects on vegetation were found in cropland and forest vegetation cover types based on image and statistical analysis of the NDVI data. The results indicate that vegetation condition was optimal during the ENSO neutral phase for both agricultural and natural vegetation.     

Inverse relationship between the equatorial eastern Pacific annual-cycle and ENSO amplitudes in a coupled general circulation model

We propose a dynamical interpretation of the inverse relationship between the tropical eastern Pacific annual-cycle (AC) amplitude and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplitude, based on a pre-industrial simulation of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Couple climate model 2.0 with a fixed concentration of greenhouse gases spanning approximately 500 years. The slowly varying background conditions over more than a decade alternately provided favorable conditions for two opposite regimes, namely the ‘strong AC—weak ENSO regime’ and the ‘weak AC—strong ENSO regime’. For the weak AC—strong ENSO regime, the tropical eastern Pacific shows meridional-asymmetric surface warming with an emphasis on the southern part, leading to weakening of both the zonal trade wind and the cross equatorial southerly wind, as well as deepening of both the thermocline and mixed layer. The deeper mixed layer, weaker southerly wind, and reduced zonal gradient of the mean sea surface temperature due to tropical eastern Pacific warming all acts to reduce the AC. Conversely, the ENSO was intensified by the deeper mixed layer and deeper thermocline depth (thermocline feedback), but suppressed by the deeper thermocline depth (Ekman feedback) and the reduced zonal temperature gradient. We also computed the coupling strengths of the ENSO and AC, defined as the linear regression coefficients of the zonal and meridional wind stresses against the eastern Pacific SST, respectively. The coupling strengths of both the AC and ENSO are larger when they are intensified, and vice versa. All processes for the weak AC—strong ENSO regime operate in the opposite manner for the strong AC—weak ENSO regime.     

Interdecadal changes in the relationship between Southern China winter-spring precipitation and ENSO

Winter-spring precipitation in southern China tends to be higher (lower) than normal in El Niño (La Niña) years during 1953–1973. The relationship between the southern China winter-spring precipitation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is weakened during 1974–1994. During 1953–1973, above-normal southern China rainfall corresponds to warmer sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial central Pacific. There are two anomalous vertical circulations with ascent over the equatorial central Pacific and ascent over southern China and a common branch of descent over the western North Pacific that is accompanied by an anomalous lower-level anticyclone. During 1974–1994, above-normal southern China rainfall corresponds to warmer SST in eastern South Indian Ocean and cooler SST in western South Indian Ocean. Two anomalous vertical circulations act to link southern China rainfall and eastern South Indian Ocean SST anomalies, with ascent over eastern South Indian Ocean and southern China and a common branch of descent over the western North Pacific. Present analysis shows that South Indian Ocean SST anomalies can contribute to southern China winter-spring precipitation variability independently. The observed change in the relationship between southern China winter-spring rainfall and ENSO is likely related to the increased SST variability in eastern South Indian Ocean and the modulation of the Pacific decadal oscillation.     

Maintenance of PDO variability during the mid-holocene in PMIP2

Using the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project Phase 2 (PMIP2), we investigate Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) variability during the Mid-Holocene (6,000 years ago), especially maintenance of the PDO variability during the mid-Holocene despite reduced El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) activity. Most of the models participating PMIP2 identified the reduced ENSO activity during the mid-Holocene, but essentially little difference in PDO variability between the pre-industrial and mid-Holocene periods. Through multiple regression and partial correlation analysis, we found that the influence of the ENSO on the PDO was reduced due to reduced ENSO activity, but that the influence of local atmospheric circulation (Aleutian Low; AL) was enhanced during the mid-Holocene even though the variability of AL itself did not change much between the mid-Holocene and the present. That is, the reduction in PDO activity due to the weaken ENSO is offset by the enhanced PDO attributable to the intensified influence of the AL. As a result, the PDO variability during the mid-Holocene was as active as that during the pre-industrial era.     

ENSO representation in climate models: from CMIP3 to CMIP5

We analyse the ability of CMIP3 and CMIP5 coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation models (CGCMs) to simulate the tropical Pacific mean state and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The CMIP5 multi-model ensemble displays an encouraging 30 % reduction of the pervasive cold bias in the western Pacific, but no quantum leap in ENSO performance compared to CMIP3. CMIP3 and CMIP5 can thus be considered as one large ensemble (CMIP3 + CMIP5) for multi-model ENSO analysis. The too large diversity in CMIP3 ENSO amplitude is however reduced by a factor of two in CMIP5 and the ENSO life cycle (location of surface temperature anomalies, seasonal phase locking) is modestly improved. Other fundamental ENSO characteristics such as central Pacific precipitation anomalies however remain poorly represented. The sea surface temperature (SST)-latent heat flux feedback is slightly improved in the CMIP5 ensemble but the wind-SST feedback is still underestimated by 20–50 % and the shortwave-SST feedbacks remain underestimated by a factor of two. The improvement in ENSO amplitudes might therefore result from error compensations. The ability of CMIP models to simulate the SST-shortwave feedback, a major source of erroneous ENSO in CGCMs, is further detailed. In observations, this feedback is strongly nonlinear because the real atmosphere switches from subsident (positive feedback) to convective (negative feedback) regimes under the effect of seasonal and interannual variations. Only one-third of CMIP3 + CMIP5 models reproduce this regime shift, with the other models remaining locked in one of the two regimes. The modelled shortwave feedback nonlinearity increases with ENSO amplitude and the amplitude of this feedback in the spring strongly relates with the models ability to simulate ENSO phase locking. In a final stage, a subset of metrics is proposed in order to synthesize the ability of each CMIP3 and CMIP5 models to simulate ENSO main characteristics and key atmospheric feedbacks.     

Interannual and interdecadal oscillation patterns in sea level

Relative sea-level height (RSLH) data at 213 tide-gauge stations have been analyzed on a monthly and an annual basis to study interannual and interdecadal oscillations, respectively. The main tools of the study are singular spectrum analysis (SSA) and multi-channel SSA (M-SSA). Very-low-frequency variability of RSLH was filtered by SSA to estimate the linear trend at each station. Global sea-level rise, after postglacial rebound corrections, has been found to equal 1.62±0.38 mm/y, by averaging over 175 stations which have a trend consistent with the neighboring ones. We have identified two dominant time scales of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability, quasi-biennial and low-frequency, in the RSLH data at almost all stations. However, the amplitudes of both ENSO signals are higher in the equatorial Pacific and along the west coast of North America. RSLH data were interpolated along ocean coasts by latitudinal intervals of 5 or 10 degrees, depending on station density. Interannual variability was then examined by M-SSA in five regions: eastern Pacific (25°S–55°N at 10° resolution), western Pacific (35°S–45°N at 10°), equatorial Pacific (123°E–169°W, 6 stations), eastern Atlantic (30°S, 0°, and 30°N–70°N at 5°) and western Atlantic (50°S–50°N at 10°). Throughout the Pacific, we have found three dominant spatio-temporal oscillatory patterns, associated with time scales of ENSO variability; their periods are 2, 2.5–3 and 4–6 y. In the eastern Pacific, the biennial mode and the 6-y low-frequency mode propagate poleward. There is a southward propagation of low-frequency modes in the western Pacific RSLH, between 35°N and 5°S, but no clear propagation in the latitudes further south. However, equatorward propagation of the biennial signal is very clear in the Southern Hemisphere. In the equatorial Pacific, both the quasi-quadrennial and quasi-biennial modes at 10°N propagate westward. Strong and weak El Niño years are evident in the sea-level time series reconstructed from the quasi-biennial and low-frequency modes. Interannual variability with periods of 3 and 4–8 y is detected in the Atlantic RSLH data. In the eastern Atlantic region, we have found slow propagation of both modes northward and southward, away from 40–45°N. Interdecadal oscillations were studied using 81 stations with sufficiently long and continuous records. Most of these have variability at 9–13 and some at 18 y. Two significant eigenmode pairs, corresponding to periods of 11.6 and 12.8 y, are found in the eastern and western Atlantic ocean at latitudes 40°N–70°N and 10°N–50°N, respectively.