Coupled ocean-atmosphere surface variability and its climate impacts in the tropical Atlantic region

 This study examines time evolution and statistical relationships involving the two leading ocean-atmosphere coupled modes of variability in the tropical Atlantic and some climate anomalies over the tropical 120 °W–60 °W region using selected historical files (75-y near global SSTs and precipitation over land), more recent observed data (30-y SST and pseudo wind stress in the tropical Atlantic) and reanalyses from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis System on the period 1968–1997: surface air temperature, sea level pressure, moist static energy content at 850 hPa, precipitable water and precipitation. The first coupled mode detected through singular value decomposition of the SST and pseudo wind-stress data over the tropical Atlantic (30 °N–20 °S) expresses a modulation in the thermal transequatorial gradient of SST anomalies conducted by one month leading wind-stress anomalies mainly in the tropical north Atlantic during northern winter and fall. It features a slight dipole structure in the meridional plane. Its time variability is dominated by a quasi-decadal signal well observed in the last 20–30 ys and, when projected over longer-term SST data, in the 1920s and 1930s but with shorter periods. The second coupled mode is more confined to the south-equatorial tropical Atlantic in the northern summer and explains considerably less wind-stress/SST cross-covariance. Its time series features an interannual variability dominated by shorter frequencies with increased variance in the 1960s and 1970s before 1977. Correlations between these modes and the ENSO-like Nino3 index lead to decreasing amplitude of thermal anomalies in the tropical Atlantic during warm episodes in the Pacific. This could explain the nonstationarity of meridional anomaly gradients on seasonal and interannual time scales. Overall the relationships between the oceanic component of the coupled modes and the climate anomaly patterns denote thermodynamical processes at the ocean/atmosphere interface that create anomaly gradients in the meridional plane in a way which tends to alter the north–south movement of the seasonal cycle. This appears to be consistent with the intrinsic non-dipole character of the tropical Atlantic surface variability at the interannual time step and over the recent period, but produces abnormal amplitude and/or delayed excursions of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Connections with continental rainfall are approached through three (NCEP/NCAR and observed) rainfall indexes over the Nordeste region in Brazil, and the Guinea and Sahel zones in West Africa. These indices appear to be significantly linked to the SST component of the coupled modes only when the two Atlantic modes+the ENSO-like Nino3 index are taken into account in the regressions. This suggests that thermal forcing of continental rainfall is particularly sensitive to the linear combinations of some basic SST patterns, in particular to those that create meridional thermal gradients. The first mode in the Atlantic is associated with transequatorial pressure, moist static energy and precipitable water anomaly patterns which can explain abnormal location of the ITCZ particularly in northern winter, and hence rainfall variations in Nordeste. The second mode is more associated with in-phase variations of the same variables near the southern edge of the ITCZ, particularly in the Gulf of Guinea during the northern spring and winter. It is primarily linked to the amplitude and annual phase of the ITCZ excursions and thus to rainfall variations in Guinea. Connections with Sahel rainfall are less clear due to the difficulty for the model to correctly capture interannual variability over that region but the second Atlantic mode and the ENSO-like Pacific variability are clearly involved in the Sahel climate interannual fluctuations: anomalous dry (wet) situations tend to occur when warmer (cooler) waters are present in the eastern Pacific and the gulf of Guinea in northern summer which contribute to create a northward (southward) transequatorial anomaly gradient in sea level pressure over West Africa. Received: 14 April 1998 / Accepted: 24 December 1998     

Low-frequency variability and CO2 transient climate change. Part 3. Intermonthly and interannual variability

Components of interannual, intermonthly, and total monthly variability of lower troposphere temperature are calculated from a global coupled ocean-atmosphere general circulation model (GCM) (referred to as the coupled model), from the same atmospheric model coupled to a nondynamic mixedlayer ocean (referred to as the mixed-layer model), and from microwave sounding unit (MSU) satellite data. The coupled model produces most features of intermonthly and interannual variability compared to the MSU data, but with somewhat reduced amplitude in the extratropics and increased variability in the tropical western Pacific and tropical Atlantic. The relatively short 14-year period of record of the MSU data precludes definitive conclusions about variability in the observed system at longer time scales (e.g., decadal or longer). Different 14-year periods from the coupled model show variability on those longer time scales that were noted in Part 1 of this series. The relative contributions of intermonthly and interannual variability that make up the total monthly variability are similar between the coupled model and the MSU data, suggesting that similar mechanisms are at work in both the model and observed system. These include El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-type interannual variability in the tropics, Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) type intermonthly variability in the tropics, and blocking-type intermonthly variability in the extratropics. Manifestations of all of these features have been noted in various versions of the model. Significant changes of variability noted in the coupled model with doubled carbon dioxide differ from those in our mixed-layer model and earlier studies with mixed-layer models. In particular, in our mixed-layer model intermonthly and interannual variability changes are similar with a mixture of regional increases and decreases, but with mainly decreases in the zonal mean from about 20°S to 60°N and near 60°S. In the coupled model, intermonthly and interannual changes of variability with doubled CO₂ show mostly increases of tropical interannual variability and decreases of intermonthly variability near 60°N. These changes in the tropics are related to changes in ENSO, the south Asian monsoon, and other regional hydrological regimes, while the alterations near 60°N are likely associated with changes in blocking activity. These results point to the important contribution from ENSO seen in the coupled model and the MSU data that are not present in the mixed-layer model.     

North African climate variability. Part 1: Tropical thermocline coupling

Summary Tropical ocean thermocline variability is studied using gridded data assimilated by an ocean model in the period 1950–2000. The dominant patterns and variability are identified using EOF analysis applied to E–W depth slices of sea temperatures averaged over the tropics. After removing the annual cycle, an east–west ‘see-saw’ with an interannual to decadal rhythm is the leading mode in each of the tropical basins. In the case of the leading mode in the Pacific, the thermocline oscillation forms a dipole structure, but in the (east) Atlantic and (southwest) Indian Ocean there is a single center of action. The interaction of the ocean thermocline and atmospheric Walker circulations is studied through cross-modulus analysis of wavelet-filtered EOF time scores. Our study demonstrates how tropical ocean thermocline variability contributes to zonal circulation anomalies in the atmosphere. The equatorial Pacific thermocline oscillation explains 62 and 53% of the variability of the Pacific and Atlantic zonal overturning circulations, the latter driving convective polarity between North Africa and South America. The Pacific sea-saw leads the Atlantic zonal circulation by a few months.     

Interannual and decadal variability of the subsurface thermal structure in the Pacific Ocean: 1961–90

Heat content anomalies are analyzed to understand subsurface variability on both aparticular focus on the evolving basinwide patterns and oceanic connections between the extratropics and tropics. Various analyses indicate two distinct modes, one interannual and the other decadal, that involve the tropics and the North Pacific subtropical gyre, respectively. Interannual variability is associated with El Niño in the tropics, with a prominent “see-saw” pattern alternately on and off the equator, and in the east and west, respectively. The interannual cycle features a coherent propagation of subsurface signals around the tropical Pacific, eastward along the equator but westward off the equator at 10–15?°N. Decadal signals are dominant in the subtropics and midlatitudes but also have a tropical component that appears to be independent of interannual variations. An oceanic connection can be seen between subsurface anomalies in the midlatitudes, in the subtropics and tropics on decadal time scales. Subsurface thermal anomalies associated with midlatitude decadal variability can propagate through the subtropics into the tropics, which may modulate the intensity of interannual variability in the tropics. For example, in the middle and late 1970s, a significant warm temperature anomaly appeared to penetrate into the western and central tropics at depth, warming the tropical upper ocean and depressing the thermocline. During the development of El Niño, therefore, an extratropically preconditioned subsurface state (e.g., an enhanced positive heat content anomaly) in the western and central tropical Pacific would favor a warmer sea surface temperature anomaly in the eastern equatorial Pacific, potentially increasing the intensity of ocean-atmosphere coupling. These changes in the thermocline structure and possibly in the coupling strength can further alter the very character of tropical air-sea interactions. This may help to explain decadal variability of El Niño evolution in the tropical Pacific as observed in the 1980s. Our subsurface variability analysis presents observational evidence for the detailed space-time structure of decadal oceanic links between the extratropics and the tropics.     

A predictability study of simulated North Atlantic multidecadal variability

 The North Atlantic is one of the few places on the globe where the atmosphere is linked to the deep ocean through air–sea interaction. While the internal variability of the atmosphere by itself is only predictable over a period of one to two weeks, climate variations are potentially predictable for much longer periods of months or even years because of coupling with the ocean. This work presents details from the first study to quantify the predictability for simulated multidecadal climate variability over the North Atlantic. The model used for this purpose is the GFDL coupled ocean-atmosphere climate model used extensively for studies of global warming and natural climate variability. This model contains fluctuations of the North Atlantic and high-latitude oceanic circulation with variability concentrated in the 40–60 year range. Oceanic predictability is quantified through analysis of the time-dependent behavior of large-scale empirical orthogonal function (EOF) patterns for the meridional stream function, dynamic topography, 170 m temperature, surface temperature and surface salinity. The results indicate that predictability in the North Atlantic depends on three main physical mechanisms. The first involves the oceanic deep convection in the subpolar region which acts to integrate atmospheric fluctuations, thus providing for a red noise oceanic response as elaborated by Hasselmann. The second involves the large-scale dynamics of the thermohaline circulation, which can cause the oceanic variations to have an oscillatory character on the multidecadal time scale. The third involves nonlocal effects on the North Atlantic arising from periodic anomalous fresh water transport advecting southward from the polar regions in the East Greenland Current. When the multidecadal oscillatory variations of the thermohaline circulation are active, the first and second EOF patterns for the North Atlantic dynamic topography have predictability time scales on the order of 10–20 y, whereas EOF-1 of SST has predictability time scales of 5–7 y. When the thermohaline variability has weak multidecadal power, the Hasselmann mechanism is dominant and the predictability is reduced by at least a factor of two. When the third mechanism is in an extreme phase, the North Atlantic dynamic topography patterns realize a 10–20 year predictability time scale. Additional analysis of SST in the Greenland Sea, in a region associated with the southward propagating fresh water anomalies, indicates the potential for decadal scale predictability for this high latitude region as well. The model calculations also allow insight into regional variations of predictability, which might be useful information for the design of a monitoring system for the North Atlantic. Predictability appears to break down most rapidly in regions of active convection in the high-latitude regions of the North Atlantic. Received: 28 October 1996 / Accepted: 21 March 1997     

多因子协同作用对1992年和1998年黄淮地区夏季降水异常的影响

1991年5月和1997年4月赤道中东太平洋均发生了El Ni?o事件,但是1992年夏季黄淮地区降水异常偏少,而1998年夏季却异常偏多。分析结果显示,1992年夏季西北太平洋副热带高压（以下简称副高）偏东,中高纬阻塞高压偏弱,黄淮地区降水异常偏少;而1998年夏季,副高偏西,中高纬阻塞高压活动频繁,黄淮地区降水异常偏多。对海温外强迫信号的诊断和数值模式试验显示:当西太平洋对流活动偏弱时,有利于副高西伸;鄂霍茨克海及以东海温偏高时,其上空的阻塞高压增强;北大西洋中纬度地区海温偏高时,有利于后期乌拉尔山高压脊明显增强。即在赤道中东太平洋发生El Ni?o事件的背景下,西太平洋对流、鄂霍茨克海附近亲潮区域和北大西洋中纬度区域海温异常可能是导致黄淮区域1992年夏季和1998年夏季降水差异大的主要原因。该工作显示仅根据El Ni?o事件的发生时间和强度无法完全预测黄淮地区夏季降水变化,需要综合考虑西太平洋对流、鄂霍茨克海附近海域和北大西洋中纬度区域海温异常对季风环流的影响,从多因子协同作用的角度诊断和预测黄淮地区夏季降水异常趋势,提高预测能力。     

North Atlantic decadal regimes in a coupled GCM simulation

 The non-stationarity of the North Atlantic atmosphere-ocean coupling is investigated utilizing a long time integration of a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model (GCM) and a consistent atmospheric experiment forced by the climatological sea surface temperature (SST) of the coupled GCM. The temporal behavior of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is non-stationary with two different decadal regimes being identified: (a) phases with enhanced (active) low-frequency variability of the NAO index are characterized by regional modes with a baroclinic Pacific-North America (PNA) and a dominant barotropic North Atlantic pattern; (b) in phases with reduced (passive) low-frequency variability a global mode connects tropics and midlatitudes. The characteristic space scales are similar in the coupled and the consistent atmospheric experiment; the time scales of the atmospheric eigenmodes are modified by ocean dynamics. In the active (passive) phase the corresponding atmospheric mode is reinforced by the North Atlantic (tropical Pacific) SST. Received: 15 September 2000 / Accepted: 30 March 2001     

Observational and modelling studies of Amazonia interannual climate variability

The interannual variability of climate in the Amazon basin is studied using precipitation and river level anomalies observed near the March/April rainy season peak for the period 1980–86, supported by satellite imagery of tropical convection. Evaluation of this data in conjunction with the corresponding circulation and sea-surface temperature (SST) anomaly patterns indicates that abundant rainy seasons in Northern Amazonia are characterized by anomalously cold surface waters in the tropical eastern Pacific, and negative/positive SST anomalies in the tropical North/South Atlantic, accelerated Northeast trades and a southward displaced Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) over the Atlantic sector. Years with deficient rainfall show broadly opposite patterns.General circulation model (GCM) experiments using observed SST in three case studies were aimed at testing the teleconnections between SST and Amazon climate implied by the empirical analysis. The GCM-generated surface fields resemble the corresponding observers fields most closely over the tropical Pacific and, with one exception, over the tropical Atlantic as well. The modeled precipitation features, along the Northwest coast of South America, anomalies of opposite sign to the North and South of the equator, in agreement with observations and results from a different GCM. Similarities in simulations run from different initial conditions, but using the same global SST, indicate broad consistency in response to common boundary forcing.     

中国东部冬季气温异常与海表温度异常的关系分析

采用SVD、 相关分析及EOF方法, 分析了中国东部冬季地面气温与北大西洋及北太平洋海温异常变化的关系。结果表明： （1）中国东部冬季气温变化的一致性较高; （2）冬季气温异常与前一年9月北大西洋海域关键区（16°～40°N, 60°～24°W）海温和当年2月西北太平洋关键区（20°～40°N, 124°E～180°）海温呈显著的正相关分布, 即前一年9月北大西洋和当年2月西北太平洋海温异常偏高（低）, 东部冬季气温亦偏高（低）, 即前一年9月北大西洋海温的异常是否为我国冬季气温的气候预测提供了一种前期信号; （3）关键区海温对中国东部冬季气温的影响存在区域差异。北大西洋前期海温与中国东部冬季气温有密切的关系, 而西北太平洋的海温主要影响长江流域及其以北的季风中部区; （4）海温影响气温的可能机理是西北太平洋海温异常升高, 使乌山脊减弱, 阿拉斯加脊减弱, 东亚大槽减弱向东移动, 纬向环流加强, 高纬度的冷空气不易南下, 导致我国东部大部分地区冬季气温偏暖, 反之亦然。在年代际尺度上, 纬向环流和东亚大槽对海温有显著的响应; 但在年际变化方面, 东亚大槽对海温的响应不显著。     

Decadal time scale variability recorded in the Quelccaya summit ice core δ18O isotopic ratio series and its relation with the sea surface temperature

 The spectral characteristics of the δ¹⁸O isotopic ratio time series of the Quelccaya ice cap summit core are investigated with the multi taper method (MTM), the singular spectrum analysis (SSA) and the wavelet transform (WT) techniques for the 500 y long 1485–1984 period. The most significant (at the 99.8% level) cycle according to the MTM F-test has a period centered at 14.4 y while the largest variance explaining oscillation according to the SSA technique has a period centered at 12.9 y. The stability over time of these periods is investigated by performing evolutive MTM and SSA on the 500 y long δ¹⁸O series with a 100 y wide moving window. It is shown that the cycles with largest amplitude and that the oscillations with largest extracting variance have corresponding periods aggregated around 13.5 y that are very stable over the period between 1485 and 1984. The WT of the same isotopic time series reveals the existence of a main oscillation around 12 y which are also very stable in time. The relation between the isotopic data at Quelccaya and the annual sea surface temperature (SST) field anomalies is then evaluated for the overlapping 1919–1984 period. Significant global correlation and significant coherency at 12.1 y are found between the isotopic series and the annual global sea surface temperature (GSST) series. Moreover, the correlation between the low (over 8 y) frequency component of the isotopic time series and the annual SST field point out significant values in the tropical North Atlantic. This region is characterized by a main SST variability at 12.8 y. The Quelccaya δ¹⁸O isotopic ratio series may therefore be considered as a good recorder of the tropical North Atlantic SSTs. This may be explained by the following mechanism: the water vapor amount evaporated by the tropical North Atlantic is function of the SST. So is the water vapor δ¹⁸O isotopic ratio. This water vapor is advected during the rainy season by northeast winds and precipitates at the Quelccaya summit with its tropical North Atlantic isotopic signature. It is also suggested from this described stability of the decadal time scale variability observed in the Quelccaya isotopic series, that the decadal time scale GSST variability was also stable during the last five centuries. Received: 12 February 1997 / Accepted: 9 September 1997     

Seasonal to interannual climate predictability in mid and high northern latitudes in a global coupled model

The upper limit of climate predictability in mid and high northern latitudes on seasonal to interannual time scales is investigated by performing two perfect ensemble experiments with the global coupled atmosphere–ocean–sea ice model ECHAM5/MPI-OM. The ensembles consist of six members and are initialized in January and July from different years of the model’s 300-year control integration. The potential prognostic predictability is analyzed for a set of oceanic and atmospheric climate parameters. The predictability of the atmospheric circulation is small except for southeastern Europe, parts of North America and the North Pacific, where significant predictability occurs with a lead time of up to half a year. The predictability of 2 m air temperature shows a large land–sea contrast with highest predictabilities over the sub polar North Atlantic and North Pacific. A combination of relatively high persistence and advection of sea surface temperature anomalies into these areas leads to large predictability. Air temperature over Europe, parts of North America and Asia shows significant predictability of up to half a year in advance. Over the ice-covered Arctic, air temperature is not predictable at time scales exceeding 2 months. Sea ice thickness is highly predictable in the central Arctic mainly due to persistence and in the Labrador Sea due to dynamics. Surface salinity is highly predictable in the Arctic Ocean, northern North Atlantic and North Pacific for several years in advance. We compare the results to the predictability due to persistence and show the importance of dynamical processes for the predictability.     

Surface flux response to interannual tropical Pacific sea surface temperature variability in AMIP models

 A systematic comparison of observed and modeled atmospheric surface heat and momentum fluxes related to sea surface temperature (SST) variability on interannual time scales in the tropical Pacific is conducted. This is done to examine the ability of atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) in the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) to simulate the surface fluxes important for driving the ocean on interannual time scales. In order to estimate the model and observed response to such SST variability, various regression calculations are made between a time series representing observed ENSO SST variability in the tropical Pacific and the resulting surface flux anomalies. The models exhibit a range of differences from the observations. Overall the zonal wind stress anomalies are most accurately simulated while the solar radiation anomalies are the least accurately depicted. The deficiencies in the solar radiation are closely related to errors in cloudiness. The total heat flux shows some cancellation of the errors in its components particularly in the central Pacific. The performance of the GCMs in simulating the surface flux anomalies seems to be resolution dependent and low-resolution models tend to exhibit weaker flux responses. The simulated responses in the western Pacific are more variable than those of the central and eastern Pacific but in the west the observed estimates are less robust as well. Further improvements in atmospheric GCM flux simulation through better physical parametrization is clearly required if such models are to be used to their full potential in coupled modeling and climate forecasting. Received: 24 August 1999 / Accepted: 11 September 2000     

长江梅雨的长期变率与海洋的关系及其可预报性研究

采用最新发布的梅雨国家标准资料,以长江区域梅雨为代表,在分析区域梅雨的多时间尺度变化特征的基础上,从海洋外强迫影响因子角度探讨了梅雨的可预报性来源,进一步综合海洋背景变率和预测模型回报试验讨论梅雨异常的可预报性。结果表明:（1）长江梅雨呈现周期为3-4、6-8、12-16、32、64 a的多时间尺度变化分量和长期减少趋势。其中,3-4 a准周期变化是梅雨异常变化的主要分量。梅雨的干湿位相转变受12-16 a的准周期变化调制,极端涝年易出现在12-16 a准周期变化湿位相和3-4 a变化分量峰值位相叠加的情况。（2）长江梅雨的各准周期变化分量有不同的海洋外强迫背景,是梅雨可预报性的重要来源。与时间尺度较短的年际变化分量相关联的海温关键区主要分布于热带,而与时间尺度较长的年代际或多年代际变化分量相联系的海温关键区则来自中高纬度。3-4 a准周期变化分量的海洋外强迫强信号随季节变化由前冬的ENSO（厄尔尼诺-南方涛动）转为春末夏初的印度洋偶极子（IOD）。6-8和12-16 a年准周期变化分量的海洋强迫关键区主要位于太平洋。准32和准64 a周期振荡则受北太平洋多年代际变化（PDO）和北大西洋多年代际变化（AMO）的共同影响。梅雨的长期变化趋势则与全球变暖背景及以PDO为代表的年代际海洋外强迫因子相联系。（3）尽管梅雨异常与ENSO的正相关关系呈现减弱趋势,但20世纪70年代以后的梅雨异常年际变化分量的可预报性有所增大。（4）将梅雨各变化分量作为预测对象分别建模,进一步构建梅雨异常预测统计模型。采用该模型对近5年梅雨预测进行独立样本检验,有较好的回报效果,验证了梅雨异常年际分量可预报性的稳定性以及基于多时间尺度分离建立梅雨预测模型的优越性。      

大洋间SST遥联与亚太夏季风异常的关系

用奇异值分解(Singular Value Decomposition,SVD)方法,给出了四季年代际和年际时间尺度上北大西洋和北太平洋海表温度(Sea Surface Temperature,SST)的显著遥相关.用SVD主模态时间系数构造了海温异常指数Ⅰ,分析了它们与同期亚太夏季风和我国东部夏季降水异常的关系.结果表明:两大洋间的SST遥联在年际、年代际时间尺度上都与亚太夏季风相关,其中,年际尺度的两大洋SST遥联与长江流域的降水存在显著相关.     

A study of atmosphere-ocean predictability on long time scales

 Two different methods, one diagnostic and the other prognostic, are used to investigate the predictability of the coupled atmosphere-ocean system on time scales of months to decades. The diagnostic approach analyzes the output of a 200 year coupled model simulation for evidence that the long time scale variability of annual, pentadal, and decadal means of surface air temperature are “potentially predictable”. The prognostic “perfect model” approach analyzes predictability of the system by calculating the rate of separation of a small set of coupled model simulations in terms of monthly and annual means of surface air temperature over the globe. Both approaches give reasonably coherent results. At the shorter of the time scales considered, there is little predictability over land but some evidence of predictability over the tropical Pacific, the Southern Ocean and to some extent the extratropical northern Pacific. At longer time scales there is some slight evidence of predictability over certain land areas and more definite evidence of predictability in the tropical Pacific and Southern Ocean. A new area of predictability emerges in the tropical Atlantic. There are plausible physical mechanisms which may explain these long time scale areas of predictability. Both approaches have the potential of shedding light on the long time scale predictability of the coupled system in more extensive predictability studies of this kind. Received: 24 September 1998 / Accepted: 8 October 1999     

Dynamics of the boreal summer African monsoon in the NSIPP1 atmospheric model

A nine-member ensemble of simulations with a state-of-the-art atmospheric model forced only by the observed record of sea surface temperature (SST) over 1930–2000 is shown to capture the dominant patterns of variability of boreal summer African rainfall. One pattern represents variability along the Gulf of Guinea, between the equator and 10°N. It connects rainfall over Africa to the Atlantic marine Intertropical Convergence Zone, is controlled by local, i.e., eastern equatorial Atlantic, SSTs, and is interannual in time scale. The other represents variability in the semi-arid Sahel, between 10°N and 20°N. It is a continental pattern, capturing the essence of the African summer monsoon, while at the same time displaying high sensitivity to SSTs in the global tropics. A land–atmosphere feedback associated with this pattern translates precipitation anomalies into coherent surface temperature and evaporation anomalies, as highlighted by a simulation where soil moisture is held fixed to climatology. As a consequence of such feedback, it is shown that the recent positive trend in surface temperature is consistent with the ocean-forced negative trend in precipitation, without the need to invoke the direct effect of the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases. We advance plausible mechanisms by which the balance between land–ocean temperature contrast and moisture availability that defines the monsoon could have been altered in recent decades, resulting in persistent drought. This discussion also serves to illustrate ways in which the monsoon may be perturbed, or may already have been perturbed, by anthropogenic climate change.     

Interannual and Interdecadal Variations of the Mid-Atlantic Trough and Associated American-Atlantic-Eurasian Climate Anomalies

The mid-Atlantic trough (MAT) is one of the most prominent circulation systems over the subtropical North Atlantic during the boreal summer, and it can be viewed as a bridge linking the climate in the American-Atlantic-Eurasian region. The upper-tropospheric MAT attains its maximum intensity of 200–150?hPa in June and July. An index measuring the variability of MAT intensity is defined, which reveals significant interannual and interdecadal variations of the trough.

On interannual time scales, the variation of MAT is significantly associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation, a southeastward propagating stationary wave that possibly originates from the northeastern Pacific, and the Atlantic Meridional Mode. A stronger trough is associated with warmer surface temperatures and higher pressure over central-northern North America and the extratropical North Atlantic and with colder surface temperatures and lower pressure over the Arctic, the subtropical North Atlantic, and the northeastern Pacific. In the meantime, significant negative precipitation anomalies occur over the north of the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, as well as the northeastern Atlantic because of the anomalous low-level northeasterly winds over these areas. On an interdecadal time scale, the variation of MAT seems to be related to the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation. Warmer surface temperatures appear over almost the entire North Atlantic, southern Europe, East Asia, and the North Pacific during the weak phase of the trough. A weak trough is also associated with the dipole pattern of anomalous precipitation over the extratropical North Atlantic, Greenland, and northeastern North America, corresponding to a dipole of low-level atmospheric circulation over these regions.     

Factors that affect the amplitude of El Nino in global coupled climate models

Historically, El Nino-like events simulated in global coupled climate models have had reduced amplitude compared to observations. Here, El Nino-like phenomena are compared in ten sensitivity experiments using two recent global coupled models. These models have various combinations of horizontal and vertical ocean resolution, ocean physics, and atmospheric model resolution. It is demonstrated that the lower the value of the ocean background vertical diffusivity, the greater the amplitude of El Nino variability which is related primarily to a sharper equatorial thermocline. Among models with low background vertical diffusivity, stronger equatorial zonal wind stress is associated with relatively higher amplitude El Nino variability along with more realistic east–west sea surface temperature (SST) gradient along the equator. The SST seasonal cycle in the eastern tropical Pacific has too much of a semiannual component with a double intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in all experiments, and thus does not affect, nor is it affected by, the amplitude of El Nino variability. Systematic errors affecting the spatial variability of El Nino in the experiments are characterized by the eastern equatorial Pacific cold tongue regime extending too far westward into the warm pool. The time scales of interannual variability (as represented by time series of Nino3 SSTs) show significant power in the 3–4 year ENSO band and 2–2.5 year tropospheric biennial oscillation (TBO) band in the model experiments. The TBO periods in the models agree well with the observations, while the ENSO periods are near the short end of the range of 3–6 years observed during the period 1950–94. The close association between interannual variability of equatorial eastern Pacific SSTs and large-scale SST patterns is represented by significant correlations between Nino3 time series and the PC time series of the first EOFs of near-global SSTs in the models and observations. Received: 17 April 2000 / Accepted: 17 August 2000     

Climate predictability on interannual to decadal time scales: the initial value problem

Any initial value forecast of climate will be subject to errors originating from poorly known initial conditions, model imperfections, and by "chaos" in the sense that, even if the initial conditions were perfectly known, infinitesimal errors can amplify and spoil the forecast at some lead time. Here the latter source of error is examined using a "perfect model" approach whereby small perturbations are made to a coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model and the spread of nearby model trajectories, on time and space scales appropriate to seasonal-decadal climate variability, is measured to assess the lead time at which the error saturates. The study therefore represents an estimate of the upper limit of the predictability of climate (appropriate to the initial value problem) given a perfect model and near perfect knowledge of the initial conditions. It is found that, on average, surface air temperature anomalies are potentially predictable on seasonal to interannual time scales in the tropical regions and are potentially predictable on decadal time scales over the ocean in the North Atlantic. For mid-latitude surface air temperature anomalies over land, model trajectories rapidly diverge and there is little sign of any potential predictability on time scales greater than a season or so. For mean sea level pressure anomalies, there is potential predictability on seasonal time scales in the tropics, and for some global scale annual-decadal anomalies, although not those associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation. For precipitation, the only potential for predictability is for seasonal time anomalies associated with the El-Niño Southern Oscillation. For the majority of the highly populated regions of the world, climate predictability on interannual to decadal time scales based in the initial value approach is likely to be severely limited by chaotic error growth. It is found however that there can be cases in which the potential predictability can be higher than average indicating that there is perhaps some utility in making initial value forecasts of climate in those regions which show low predictability on average.