Influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on the long-term record of floods over Bangladesh

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - The present study analyzed a long-term record of major floods over Bangladesh under the influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Bangladesh...     

Influence of Intraseasonal Oscillation on the Asymmetric Decays of El Ni?o and La Ni?a

Warm and cold phases of El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exhibit a significant asymmetry in their decay speed. To explore the physical mechanism responsible for this asymmetric decay speed, the asymmetric features of anomalous sea surface temperature (SST) and atmospheric circulation over the tropical Western Pacific (WP) in El Nino and La Nina mature-to-decay phases are analyzed. It is found that the interannual standard deviations of outgoing longwave radiation and 850 hPa zonal wind anomalies over the equatorial WP during El Nino (La Nina) mature-to-decay phases are much stronger (weaker) than the intraseasonal standard deviations. It seems that the weakened (enhanced) intraseasonal oscillation during El Nino (La Nina) tends to favor a stronger (weaker) interannual variation of the atmospheric wind, resulting in asymmetric equatorial WP zonal wind anomalies in El Nino and La Nina decay phases. Numerical experiments demonstrate that such asymmetric zonal wind stress anomalies during El Nino and La Nina decay phases can lead to an asymmetric decay speed of SST anomalies in the central-eastern equatorial Pacific through stimulating di erent equatorial Kelvin waves. The largest negative anomaly over the Nino3 region caused by the zonal wind stress anomalies during El Nino can be threefold greater than the positive Nino3 SSTA anomalies during La Nina, indicating that the stronger zonal wind stress anomalies over the equatorial WP play an important role in the faster decay speed during El Nino.     

Diverse influences of spring Arctic Oscillation on the following winter El Niño–Southern Oscillation in CMIP5 models

Climate Dynamics - This study evaluates the ability of 35 climate models, which participate in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) historical climate simulations, in...     

Teleconnected influence of North Atlantic sea surface temperature on the El Ni?o onset

Influence of North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies on tropical Pacific SST anomalies is examined. Both summer and winter North Atlantic SST anomalies are negatively related to central-eastern tropical Pacific SST anomalies in the subsequent months varying from 5 to 13?months. In particular, when the North Atlantic is colder than normal in the summer, an El Ni?o event is likely to be initiated in the subsequent spring in the tropical Pacific. Associated with summer cold North Atlantic SST anomalies is an anomalous cyclonic circulation at low-level over the North Atlantic from subsequent October to April. Corresponded to this local response, an SST-induced heating over the North Atlantic produces a teleconnected pattern, similar to the East Atlantic/West Russia teleconnection. The pattern features two anticyclonic circulations near England and Lake Baikal, and two cyclonic circulations over the North Atlantic and near the Caspian Sea. The anticyclonic circulation near Lake Baikal enhances the continent northerlies, and strengthens the East-Asian winter monsoon. These are also associated with an off-equatorial cyclonic circulation in the western Pacific during the subsequent winter and spring, which produces equatorial westerly wind anomalies in the western Pacific. The equatorial westerly wind anomalies in the winter and spring can help initiate a Pacific El Ni?o event following a cold North Atlantic in the summer.     

Impact of Pacific Decadal Oscillation on Frequency Asymmetry of El Nio and La Nia Events

正El Nio–Southern Oscillation(ENSO)is an abnormal sea surface warming or cooling phenomenon over the tropical Pacific,which also has severe global impact.Interestingly,ENSO characteristics are changing with climate change(e.g.,Collins et al.,2010).Therefore,it is expected that ENSO can be modulated on the decadal time scale,particularly when the tropical climate background state is fluctuating strongly     

The El Niño Southern Oscillation and economic growth in the developing world

The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) affects weather around the globe, particularly in regions where developing countries typically lie. These countries are known to be most vulnerable to weather anomalies, and ENSO thereby has the potential to influence their economic growth. In this study, we investigate the effect of ENSO on economic growth in 69 developing countries, using annual data from 1961 to 2015. We find regime-dependent nonlinearity in the growth response to ENSO shocks. An El Niño event, equivalent to a 1 °C deviation in sea surface temperatures in the Niño3.4 region of the equatorial Pacific, results in one-to-two percent annual growth reduction during the El Niño regime, but the effect is absent during the La Niña regime. In addition, we find that the effect of El Niño is twice-as-large in the tropics relative to temperate areas, and particularly pronounced in Africa and Asia-Pacific. The findings of this study have two important implications. From the modeling standpoint, we find that the growth impacts of ENSO shocks are nonlinear, and vary across regions and climatic zones. From the policy-making standpoint, our findings suggest opportunities for short-term adjustments to climate shock management and international aid programs, depending on the existing state and the intermediate-term patterns of the ENSO cycle.     

The influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation on boreal winter rainfall over Peninsular Malaysia

Multi-scale interactions between El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Boreal Winter Monsoon contribute to rainfall variations over Malaysia. Understanding the physical mechanisms that control these spatial variations in local rainfall is crucial for improving weather and climate prediction and related risk management. Analysis using station observations and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Interim Reanalysis (ERA-Interim) reanalysis reveals a significant decrease in rainfall during El Niño (EL) and corresponding increase during La Niña particularly north of 2°N over Peninsular Malaysia (PM). It is noted that the southern tip of PM shows a small increase in rainfall during El Niño although not significant. Analysis of the diurnal cycle of rainfall and winds indicates that there are no significant changes in morning and evening rainfall over PM that could explain the north–south disparity. Thus, we suggest that the key factor which might explain the north–south rainfall disparity is the moisture flux convergence (MFC). During the December to January (DJF) period of EL years, except for the southern tip of PM, significant negative MFC causes drying as well as suppression of uplift over most areas. In addition, lower specific humidity combined with moisture flux divergence results in less moisture over PM. Thus, over the areas north of 2°N, less rainfall (less heavy rain days) with smaller diurnal rainfall amplitude explains the negative rainfall anomaly observed during DJF of EL. The same MFC argument might explain the dipolar pattern over other areas such as Borneo if further analysis is performed.     

Connections Between Different Types of El Nio and Southern/Northern Oscillation

It has long been acknowledged that there are two types of El Nio events, i.e., the eastern Pacific El Nio (EE) and the central Pacific El Nio (CE), according to the initial position of the anomalous warm water and its propagation direction. In this paper, the oceanic and atmospheric evolutions and the possible mechanisms of the two types of El Nio events were examined. It is found that all the El Nio events, CE or EE, could be attributed to the joint impacts of the eastward advection of warm water from...     

Connections Between Different Types of El Nio and Southern/Northern Oscillation

It has long been acknowledged that there are two types of El Nio events, i.e., the eastern Pacific El Nio (EE) and the central Pacific El Nio (CE), according to the initial position of the anomalous warm water and its propagation direction. In this paper, the oceanic and atmospheric evolutions and the possible mechanisms of the two types of El Nio events were examined. It is found that all the El Nio events, CE or EE, could be attributed to the joint impacts of the eastward advection of warm water from the western Pacific warm pool (WPWP) and the local warming in the equatorial eastern Pacific. Before the occurrence of CE events, WPWP had long been in a state of being anomalous warm, so the strength of eastward advection of warm water was much stronger than that of EE, which played a major role in the formation of CE. While for the EE events, most contribution came from the local warming of the equatorial eastern Pacific. It is further identified that the immediate cause leading to the difference of the two types of El Nio events was the asynchronous variations of the Southern Oscillation (SO) and the Northern Oscillation (NO) as defined by Chen in 1984. When the transition from the positive phase of the NO (NO+) to NO- was prior to that from SO+ to SO-, there would be eastward propagation of westerly anomalies from the tropical western Pacific induced by NO and hence the growth of warm sea surface temperature anomalies in WPWP and its eastward propagation. This was followed by lagged SO-induced weakening of southeast trade winds and local warming in the equatorial eastern Pacific. These were conducive to the occurrence of the CE. On the contrary, the transition from SO+ to SO- leading the transition of NO would favor the occurrence of EE type events.     

El Niño–Southern Oscillation diversity and Southern Africa teleconnections during Austral Summer

Climate Dynamics - A wide range of sea surface temperature (SST) expressions have been observed during the El Niño–Southern Oscillation events of 1950–2010, which have occurred...     

Potential impacts of enhanced tropical cyclone activity on the El Ni?o–Southern Oscillation and East Asian monsoon in the mid-Piacenzian warm period

热带气旋不仅是一种严重的灾害性天气事件,其在气候时间尺度也可通过加强海洋上层垂直混合进而调节全球海洋经向热量输送。基于一个海气耦合模式,本文探讨了强热带气旋活动对皮亚琴察暖期(又称晚上新世暖期;约300万年前)ENSO和东亚季风环流的可能影响。模拟结果表明,热带气旋引起的海洋垂直混合加强可造成热带东太平洋显著增温、温跃层加深,但ENSO年际变率减弱。对东亚季风而言,夏季副热带高压南移且西伸,副热带急流减弱并南移,我国南方西南风加强;冬季东亚大槽加深,副热带急流南移,我国北方偏北风加强。上述模拟结果可增进我们对热带气旋气候反馈作用以及晚上新世暖期全球气候特征的认识。     

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.     

Impacts of two types of El Niño on atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere

Based on NCEP/NCAR （National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmo- spheric Research） reanalysis data from 1979 to 2010, the impacts of two types of E1 Nino on atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere （SH） are analyzed. It is shown thaL when a warming event occurs in the equatorial eastern Pacific （EP E1 Nino）, there is a negative sea level pressure （SLP） anomaly in the east- ern Pacific and a positive one in the western Pacific. Besides, there exists a negative anomaly between 40°S and 60°S and a positive anomaly to the south of 60°S. When a warming event in the central Pacific （CP E1 Nino） occurs, there appears a negative SLP anomaly in the central Pacific and a positive SLP anomaly in the eastern and western Pacific, but the SLP anomalies are not so evident in the SH extratropics. In particular, the Pacific-South America （PSA） pattern induced by the CP E1 Nino is located more northwestward, with a weaker anomaly compared with the EP E1 Nino. This difference is directly related with the different position of heating centers associated with the two types of E1 Nino events. Because the SST anomaly associated with CP E1 Nino is located more westward than that associated with EP El Nino, the related heating center tends to move westward and the response of SH atmospheric circulation to the tropical heating changes accordingly, thus exciting a different position of the PSA pattern. It is also noted that the local meridional cell plays a role in the SH high latitudes during EP E1 Nino. The anomalous ascending motion due to the enhancement of convection over the eastern Pacific leads to an enhancement of the local Hadley cell and the meridional cell in the middle and high latitudes, which in turn induces an anomalous descending motion and the related positive anomaly of geopotential height over the Amundsen-Bellingshausen Sea.     

The effect of El Niño Southern Oscillation on U.S. corn production and downside risk

ENSO teleconnections imply anomalous weather conditions, causing yield shortages, price fluctuations, and civil unrest. We estimate ENSO’s effect on U.S. county-level corn yield distributions and find that temperature and precipitation alone are not sufficient to summarize the effect of global climate on agriculture. We find that acreage-weighted aggregate impacts mask considerable spatial heterogeneity at the county-level for the mean, variance, and downside risk of corn yields. Impacts for mean yields range from ??24 to 33 % for El Niño and ??25 to 36 % for La Niña, with the geographical center of losses shifting from the Eastern to Western corn belt. ENSO’s effect on the variance of crop yields is highly localized and is not representative of a variance-preserving shift. We also find that downside risk impacts are large and spatially correlated across counties.     

The impact of El Ni?o on South American summer climate during different phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

In austral summer, the observed El Ni?o (EN) events during warm Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) phases (PDO(+)) exhibited large anomalous upper level wave patterns in response to larger Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies in the Equatorial Pacific and Atlantic Oceans compared with SST anomalies in EN events during cold PDO phases (PDO(?)). The precipitation anomalies in PDO(+) EN are increased over Southeastern South America (SESA) associated with the intensification of the moisture flux convergence in this region. The PDO(?) EN events exhibit positive precipitation anomalies only over southern SESA, while negative anomalies were observed in the north. Downward motion and anomalous divergence over central eastern Brazil may have contributed to the weakening of the northwesterly moisture flux convergence associated with the South American Low Level Jet (SALLJ) over the subtropics. The extratropical cyclones showed higher frequency and lower central pressures in southern Brazil, Uruguay, northeastern Argentina, and Southwest Atlantic Ocean during the PDO(+) EN events compared with the PDO(?) EN events. Such increase in the frequency and intensity of cyclogenesis cases seems to be in accordance with the anomalous moisture flux convergence over the SESA and associated reduction in the Sea Level Pressure observed during PDO(+) EN events. In order to investigate the impact of a canonical El Ni?o event over South America under different PDO phases, two numerical experiments were done with an Atmospheric General Circulation Model. Global SST and ice sea fields average over years characterized by (a) PDO(+) and (b) PDO(?) were considered as climatologically fields, and a composite of anomalies of SST of all El Ni?o events observed in 1950?C1999 was added in the region 20oS?C20oN;120oW?C175oW of both ??climatologies.?? The differences in experiments suggest that a canonical EN may produce significant different anomalous atmospheric patterns associated with distinct PDO climatologies. The more significant differences are simulated over extreme northern and eastern Brazil. Additional numerical experiments isolating the observed variability of SST over several oceanic basins during different PDO phases will be conducted to study their particular role on the South American climate.     

El Niño-Southern Oscillation impacts on winter winds over Southern California

Changes in wintertime 10 m winds due to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation are examined using a 6 km resolution climate simulation of Southern California covering the period from 1959 through 2001. Wind speed statistics based on regional averages reveal a general signal of increased mean wind speeds and wind speed variability during El Niño across the region. An opposite and nearly as strong signal of decreased wind speed variability during La Niña is also found. These signals are generally more significant than the better-known signals in precipitation. In spite of these regional-scale generalizations, there are significant sub-regional mesoscale structures in the wind speed impacts. In some cases, impacts on mean winds and wind variability at the sub-regional scale are opposite to those of the region as a whole. All of these signals can be interpreted in terms of shifts in occurrences of the region’s main wind regimes due to the El Niño phenomenon. The results of this study can be used to understand how interannual wind speed variations in regions of Southern California are influenced by the El Niño phenomenon.     

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.