Different impacts of various El Niño events on the Indian Ocean Dipole

Our early work (Wang and Wang in J Clim 26:1322–1338, 2013) separates El Niño Modoki events into El Niño Modoki I and II because they show different impacts on rainfall in southern China and typhoon landfall activity. The warm SST anomalies originate in the equatorial central Pacific and subtropical northeastern Pacific for El Niño Modoki I and II, respectively. El Niño Modoki I features a symmetric SST anomaly distribution about the equator with the maximum warming in the equatorial central Pacific, whereas El Niño Modoki II shows an asymmetric distribution with the warm SST anomalies extending from the northeastern Pacific to the equatorial central Pacific. The present paper investigates the influence of the various groups of El Niño events on the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). Similar to canonical El Niño, El Niño Modoki I is associated with a weakening of the Walker circulation in the Indo-Pacific region which decreases precipitation in the eastern tropical Indian Ocean and maritime continent and thus results in the surface easterly wind anomalies off Java-Sumatra. Under the Bjerknes feedback, the easterly wind anomalies induce cold SST anomalies off Java- Sumatra, and thus a positive IOD tends to occur in the Indian Ocean during canonical El Niño and El Niño Modoki I. However, El Niño Modoki II has an opposite impact on the Walker circulation, resulting in more precipitation and surface westerly wind anomalies off Java-Sumatra. Thus, El Niño Modoki II is favorable for the onset and development of a negative IOD on the frame of the Bjerknes feedback.     

Influence of Indian Ocean Dipole and Pacific recharge on following year’s El Niño: interdecadal robustness

The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) can affect the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) state of the following year, in addition to the well-known preconditioning by equatorial Pacific Warm Water Volume (WWV), as suggested by a study based on observations over the recent satellite era (1981–2009). The present paper explores the interdecadal robustness of this result over the 1872–2008 period. To this end, we develop a robust IOD index, which well exploits sparse historical observations in the tropical Indian Ocean, and an efficient proxy of WWV interannual variations based on the temporal integral of Pacific zonal wind stress (of a historical atmospheric reanalysis). A linear regression hindcast model based on these two indices in boreal fall explains 50 % of ENSO peak variance 14 months later, with significant contributions from both the IOD and WWV over most of the historical period and a similar skill for El Niño and La Niña events. Our results further reveal that, when combined with WWV, the IOD index provides a larger ENSO hindcast skill improvement than the Indian Ocean basin-wide mode, the Indian Monsoon or ENSO itself. Based on these results, we propose a revised scheme of Indo-Pacific interactions. In this scheme, the IOD–ENSO interactions favour a biennial timescale and interact with the slower recharge-discharge cycle intrinsic to the Pacific Ocean.     

Warming in the northwestern Indian Ocean associated with the El Niño event

This paper investigates possible warming effects of an E1 Nifio event on the sea surface temperature anomaly （SSTA） in the northwestern Indian Ocean. Most pure positive Indian Ocean dipole （IOD） events （without an E1 Nifio event co-occurring） have a maximum positive SSTA mainly in the central Indian Ocean south of the equator, while most co-occurrences with an E1 Nifio event exhibit a northwest-southeast typical dipole mode. It is therefore inferred that warming in the northwestern Indian Ocean is closely related to the E1 Nifio event. Based on the atmospheric bridge theory, warming in the northwestern Indian Ocean during co-occurring cases may be primarily caused by relatively less latent heat loss from the ocean due to reduced wind speed. The deepened thermocline also contributes to the warming along the east coast of Africa through the suppressed upwelling of the cold water. Therefore, the E1 Nifio event is suggested to have a modulating effect on the structure of the dipole mode in the tropical Indian Ocean.     

Impact of El Niño onset timing on the Indian Ocean: Pacific coupling and subsequent El Niño evolution

A relation between the timing of the El Niño onset and its subsequent evolution is examined by emphasizing its association with the Indian Ocean (IO) SST variation. Two types of El Niño events based on the timing of their onset are classified and their characteristics are examined and compared. In general, spring onset (SP) events grow greater in magnitude and their evolutions have a faster transition. On the contrary, summer onset (SU) events are relatively weaker in magnitude and have a slower transition. Moreover, in contrast to the SU events, the SP events have a strong tendency for accompanying an IO dipole and basin-wide type of warming pattern in the El Niño developing and mature phases, respectively. It is demonstrated here that the distinctive evolutions in transition phase of the two events are resulted from the difference in IO SST. The warm IO SST in the SP El Niño event, lead an anomalous easterlies over the western Pacific, which forces a fast termination of El Niño events.     

Tanzanian rainfall responses to El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole events during 1951–2015

The relative impacts of Indian and Pacific Ocean processes on Tanzanian rainfall was evaluated using composite and correlation analyses. It was found that the seasonal responses of rainfall to positive Indian Ocean Dipole (pIOD) and El Niño events are substantial from September–October–November (SON) to December–January–February (DJF), whereas the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) exerts more control than El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in both seasons. The associated relationship with the sea surface temperature (SST) and large-scale atmospheric circulations revealed distinct features. For the pure pIOD years, there is above-normal rainfall over the entire country. A strong rainfall condition is evident over the Lake Victoria basin and coastal and northeastern highland parts of the country during SON, while areas of the central and southern highlands exhibit substantial rains during DJF. For the pure El-Niño events, Tanzania has suffered from insignificant, weak, and non-coherent rainfall conditions during SON. However, a contrasting insignificant rainfall signature is found between the northern and southern parts of the country during the subsequent DJF season. For the co-occurrence of pIOD and El Niño, significant, excessive rainfall conditions are restricted to over the northern coast and northeastern areas of the country during SON, consistent with the rainfall pattern for pIOD. A weak, positive rainfall condition is observed over the entire country in the following season of DJF. Generally, in terms of Tanzanian rainfall, the IOD/ENSO variability and the associated impacts can be explained by the anomalous SST and circulation anomalies.     

Indices of El Nio and El Nio Modoki:An Improved El Nio Modoki Index

In recent years, El Nio Modoki (a type of pseudo-El Nio) has been distinguished as a unique large-scale ocean warming phenomenon happening in the central tropical Pacific that is quite different from the traditional El Nio. In this study, EOF analysis was used to successfully separate El Nio and El Nio Modoki. The abilities of the NINO3 index, NINO3.4 index, NINO1+2 index and NINO4 index in characterizing El Nio were explored in detail. The resulting suggestion was that, comparatively, NINO3 is the op...     

Spring asymmetric mode in the tropical Indian Ocean: role of El Niño and IOD

The spring asymmetric mode over the Tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) is characterized by contrasting patterns of rainfall and surface wind anomalies north and south of Equator. The asymmetric pattern in rainfall has evolved as a leading mode of variability in the TIO and is strongly correlated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). The evolution of the asymmetric pattern in rainfall and surface wind during pure El Niño/IOD and co-occurrence years are examined in the twentieth century reanalysis for the period of 1871–2008 and atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) simulations. The study revealed that spring asymmetric mode is well developed when El Niño co-occurred with IOD (positive) and is driven by the associated meridional gradients in sea surface temperature (SST) and sea level pressure (SLP). The pure El Niño composites are characterized by homogeneous (spatially) SST anomalies (positive) and weaker SLP gradients and convection, leading to weak asymmetric mode. The asymmetric mode is absent in the pure IOD (positive) composites due to the persistence of east west SST gradient for a longer duration than the co-occurrence years. The meridional gradient in SST anomalies over the TIO associated with the ENSO-IOD forcing is therefore crucial in developing/strengthening the spring asymmetric mode. The northwest Pacific anticyclonic circulation further strengthen the asymmetric mode in surface winds by inducing northeasterlies in the north Indian Ocean during pure El Niño and co-occurrence years. The simulations based on AGCM, forced by observed SSTs during the period of 1871–2000 supported the findings. The analysis of available station and ship track data further strengthens our results.     

Anomalous winter climate conditions in the Pacific rim during recent El Niño Modoki and El Niño events

Present work compares impacts of El Niño Modoki and El Niño on anomalous climate in the Pacific rim during boreal winters of 1979–2005. El Niño Modoki (El Niño) is associated with tripole (dipole) patterns in anomalies of sea-surface temperature, precipitation, and upper-level divergent wind in the tropical Pacific, which are related to multiple “boomerangs” of ocean-atmosphere conditions in the Pacific. Zonal and meridional extents of those “boomerangs” reflect their independent influences, which are seen from lower latitudes in the west to higher latitudes in the east. In the central Pacific, more moisture is transported from the tropics to higher latitudes during El Niño Modoki owing to displacement of the wet “boomerang” arms more poleward toward east. Discontinuities at outer “boomerang” arms manifest intense interactions between tropical and subtropical/extratropical systems. The Pacific/North American pattern and related climate anomalies in North America found in earlier studies are modified in very different ways by the two phenomena. The seesaw with the dry north and the wet south in the western USA is more likely to occur during El Niño Modoki, while much of the western USA is wet during El Niño. The moisture to the southwestern USA is transported from the northward shifted ITCZ during El Niño Modoki, while it is carried by the storms traveling along the southerly shifted polar front jet during El Niño. The East Asian winter monsoon related anticyclone is over the South China Sea during El Niño Modoki as compared to its position over the Philippine Sea during El Niño, causing opposite precipitation anomalies in the southern East Asia between the two phenomena.     

The influence of El Niño on the Indian summer monsoon rainfall anomaly: a diagnostic study of the 1982/83 and 1997/98 events

The Indian summer monsoon of 1982 and 1997 depicts disparities, however, maximum sea surface temperature anomaly over Niño 3 region is observed in the following winter of both the years. The inter-annual variation of sea surface temperature anomaly shows maximum peak during 1982/83 and 1997/98 El Niño events. The inter-annual variation of multivariate ENSO index also supports the above observation. The analyses of the entire tropical Pacific basin including the equatorial region reveal an anomalous behavior of the mean sea level pressure (MSLP) and the convective activities. The observations further reveal that the negative anomaly in monsoon rainfall over India prevails throughout the monsoon season except for the month of August in 1982, while in the year 1997 the monsoon rainfall anomaly shows random variations. The comparison between the summer monsoon rainfall of 1982 and 1997 depicts that the magnitude of the positive anomaly is same in the month of August. The condition over tropical Pacific during 1982/83 and 1997/98 has been investigated through the variation of outgoing long wave radiation (OLR), MSLP and pressure vertical velocity. The time–longitude plots of OLR and MSLP reveal the changes in pressure distribution and convective pattern over the tropical equatorial Pacific. The zonal and meridional cross section of pressure vertical velocity over the tropical Pacific and tropical Indian Ocean facilitates to understand the strength of the vertical motion during the monsoons of 1982 and 1997.     

Different influences of two types of El Niños on the Indian Ocean SST variations

By comparing correlation of sea surface temperature (SST) and vertical circulation with canonical El Niño and El Niño Modoki, we find that El Niño Modoki has an effect on the Indian Ocean different from traditional El Niño. There exists obvious Indian Ocean basin mode (IOBM) after canonical El Niño, while insignificant SST anomalies exist in the Indian Ocean after El Niño Modoki. Anomalous downdraft and updraft appear over the eastern and western Indian Ocean, respectively, during canonical El Niño, while anomalous updraft is weak over the Indian Ocean during El Niño Modoki. Besides, the strength of El Niño Modoki is slightly weaker than that of canonical El Niño. According to previous studies, two mechanisms can explain IOBM after canonical El Niño: tropospheric temperature (TT) mechanism and ocean dynamics. However, both of them do not exist during El Niño Modoki. Comparing with the complicated oceanic processes, it is convenient to verify the observed TT anomalies and test the possible mechanism using the simple model. Therefore, we pay more attention on the question why TT mechanism does not work during El Niño Modoki. Using a linear barocinic model (LBM), we demonstrate that the strength of SST anomalies and cold SST anomalies in the eastern Pacific have an influence on TT anomalies. Especially, cold SST anomalies in the eastern Pacific cancel the effects of warm SST anomalies in the central Pacific on TT anomalies. It suggests that the SST anomalies in the eastern Pacific are important for the TT mechanism in two types of El Niño.     

Influence of the pace of El Niño decay on tropical cyclone frequency over the western north pacific during decaying El Niño summers

This study investigated the distinct responses of western North Pacific (WNP) tropical cyclone (TC) activity during different decaying El Niño summers. The El Niño events were classified into two types according to the periodicity of the ENSO cycle, with positive SST anomalies in the equatorial central-eastern Pacific maintaining positive values into the following summer as the slow decaying (SD) cases, but transforming to negative values in the following summer as the rapid decaying (RD) cases. Compared with that in SD El Niño summers, the TC occurrence frequency over the WNP is significantly lower in RD El Niño summers, led by a much weaker WNP monsoon trough with more unfavorable environmental factors for TC genesis and development. Further examination showed that the apparent warming over the tropical Indian Ocean basin and cooling over the equatorial central-eastern Pacific contribute together to an enhanced lower-tropospheric anticyclone through modulation of the descending branch of the large-scale Walker circulation over the WNP, which may play a crucial role in suppressing the TC activity during the decaying summer of RD El Niño cases. In contrast, the warming equatorial central-eastern Pacific and remote western Indian Ocean induce a weakening WNP anticyclone and less suppressed deep convection during the decaying summer of SD El Niño cases. Thus, the different evolution of SST anomalies associated with different paces of El Niño decay results in the linkage between the preceding winter El Niño and the decreased WNP TC frequency in summer being more (less) robust for RD (SD) El Niño cases.摘要本文分析了El Niño事件衰减速度的差异对衰退年夏季西北太平洋热带气旋 (tropical cyclone, TC) 频数的不同影响. 按照El Niño事件衰减速度不同, 将其划分为迅速衰减 (rapid decaying, RD) 和缓慢衰减 (slow decaying, SD) 的El Niño事件. SD (RD) El Niño事件的衰退年夏季, 赤道中东太平洋海温仍维持正异常 (衰减为负异常) . 与SD El Niño事件相比, RD El Niño事件衰退年夏季西北太平洋TC频数显著减少. 进一步的分析揭示了导致TC频数差异的大尺度环境要素, 指出热带印度洋-太平洋海温异常密切相关的西北太平洋低层反气旋异常在其中起到了关键作用.     

Epochal changes in the seasonal evolution of tropical Indian Ocean warming associated with El Niño

The epochal changes in the seasonal evolution of El Niño induced tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) warming in the context of mid-1970s regime shift is investigated in this study. El Niño induced warming is delayed by one season in the northern TIO during epoch-2 (post mid-1970) and southern TIO during epoch-1 (pre mid-1970). Significant spatiotemporal changes in TIO (especially in the north) warming are apparent during the developing phase of El Niño. The ocean dynamics is the major driver in the basin wide warming during epoch-2 whereas heat fluxes are the dominant processes during epoch-1. Strong coupling between thermocline and sea surface temperature (SST) in epoch-2 indicates that El Niño induced oceanic changes are very significant in the seasonal evolution of basin-wide warming. The thermocline-SST coupling is strengthened by the upward propagating subsurface warming in epoch-2. The westward propagating barrier layer over southern TIO supports persistence of warm SST (over southwest TIO in epoch-2), which in turn induce spring asymmetric mode in winds and precipitation. The asymmetric wind pattern and persistent subsidence over maritime continent are primarily responsible for stronger spring warming in epoch-2. The strong east equatorial Indian Ocean cooling in epoch-2 is mainly driven by coastal upwelling over Java–Sumatra coast, whereas in epoch-1 the weak cooling is controlled by the latent heat flux. The spatiotemporal changes in TIO SST warming and their evolution have strong impact on atmospheric circulation and rainfall distribution over the Indian Oceanic rim through local air–sea interaction.     

Statistical simulations of the future 50-year statistics of cold-tongue El Niño and warm-pool El Niño

Recent extensive studies have suggested that the occurrence of warm-pool El Niño has increased since the late 1970s and will increase in future climate. Occurrence frequencies of cold-tongue and warm-pool El Niño have been investigated in the observational record (1980–2006) and in the future 50 years (2007–2056) based on 100 synthetic SST datasets with estimates of statistical confidence. In the observational record, 80% of the warm-pool El Niño occurred since 1980 over a period of 27 years; only 20% of the warm-pool El Niño occurred prior to 1980 over a period of 110 years. The 100 synthetic datasets, on average, produce 142 months of cold-tongue El Niño in 2007–2056 as opposed to an average 107 months in the same length of the observational data; this is a 20.7% increase in the occurrence of cold-tongue El Niño compared with the observational period. Warm-pool El Niño occurred for 112 months in 2007–2056 as opposed to an average occurrence of 42 months in the observational record; this is 2.5 times the occurrence frequency in the 1980–2006 period in the synthetic datasets. As a result, occurrence frequencies of cold-tongue and warm-pool El Niño in the period of 2007–2056 become quite comparable to each other in the synthetic datasets. It is expected in the next 50 years that warm-pool El Niño will be nearly as frequent as cold-tongue El Niño.     

A long-term trend in precipitation of different spatial regions of Bangladesh and its teleconnections with El Niño/Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole

A long-term (1948 to 2012) trend of precipitation (annual, pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon seasons) in Bangladesh was analyzed in different regions using both parametric and nonparametric approaches. Moreover, the possible teleconnections of precipitation (annual and monsoon) variability with El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) episode and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) were investigated using both average and individual (both positive and negative) values of ENSO index and IOD. Our findings suggested that for annual precipitation, a significant increasing monotonic trend was found in whole Bangladesh (4.87 mm/year), its western region (5.82 mm/year) including Rangpur (9.41 mm/year) and Khulna (4.95 mm/year), and Sylhet (10.12 mm/year) and Barisal (6.94 mm/year) from eastern region. In pre-monsoon, only Rangpur (2.88 mm/year) showed significant increasing trend, while in monsoon, whole Bangladesh (3.04 mm/year), Sylhet (7.17 mm/year), and Barisal (6.94 mm/year) showed similar trend. In post-monsoon, there was no significant trend. Our results also revealed that the precipitation (annual or monsoon) of whole Bangladesh and almost all of the spatial regions did not show any significant correlation with ENSO events, whereas the average IOD values showed significant correlation only in monsoon precipitation of western region. The individual positive IODs showed significant correlation in whole Bangladesh, western region, and its two divisions (Rajshahi and Khulna). So, in the context of Bangladesh climate, IOD has the more teleconnection to precipitation than that of ENSO. Our findings indicate that the co-occurrence of ENSO and IOD events may suppress their influence on each other.

     

The trivariate seasonal analysis of couplings between El Niño,North Atlantic Oscillation,and Indian monsoon

Interdependencies between the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and Indian monsoon (IM) phenomena are investigated from data over the period of 1871-2013. Along with the bivariate analysis of directional couplings between ENSO, NAO, and IM, their trivariate analysis was carried out. To detect the seasonal features of directional couplings using Wiener-Granger causality, various temporal resolutions of the data ranging from a month to a half-year are used. Taking into account the seasonality of the processes, the influence of ENSO on NAO is detected which has different signs in winter and summer. The influence of NAO on ENSO is revealed only in the trivariate analysis. The strongest couplings are observed between ENSO and IM. All the detected couplings can be divided into two groups: the "fast" (with the characteristic time from a month to several months) and "slow" (with the characteristic time of a half-year or longer) ones. The fast couplings include bidirectional couplings between IM and ENSO in summer and autumn when the summer pattern of NAO influences the patterns of ENSO and IM in the next season. The slow couplings include the effects of ENSO on NAO and on the winter pattern of IM as well as the influence of IM on the summer pattern NAO.