Vertical circulation in the tropical atmosphere during extreme El Niño-Southern Oscillation events

Scenarios for the development of large-scale vertical circulation anomalies during warm and cold phases of El Niño-Southern Oscillation are generalized based on the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data for 1958-1998. Composite models of the cells of vertical circulation in the monsoon and trade-wind regions of the tropical Pacific are obtained for the first time for El Niño and La Niña separately. An unprecedented shift of the ascending branch of the zonal Walker circulation from the “maritime continent” of Indonesia to the east, to the central and eastern Pacific, was observed during the warm phase over the tropical Pacific; this shift was accompanied by an abrupt increase in the tropical cyclogenesis activity in the southern Pacific zone of convergence. On the contrary, during the cold phase, the ascending motions in the region of the summer Australian monsoon are subject to abrupt intensification. The reconstruction of the vertical meridional circulation during the warm phase manifested itself in the almost complete disappearance of the Hadley classic circulation over the central Pacific, characteristic of the trade-wind intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), and in its replacement by the latitudinal monsoon circulation typical of the ITCZ over the Indian Ocean. During a cold phase, the Hadley circulation is both restored and intensified.     

Large-scale moisture exchange in the tropical atmosphere during the extreme El Niño-Southern oscillation events

The generalization of scenarios of the development of large-scale moisture exchange is carried out separately for the warm and cold phases of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event using the NCEP/NCAR and GPCP reanalysis data. Obtained are the composition models of the integral water vapor transport for the monsoon and trade-wind regions of the Pacific and Indian oceans. It is demonstrated that the monsoon circulation is suppressed during the El Niño and is replaced by the trade wind in the Indian Ocean and the trade wind is suppressed and replaced by the monsoon circulation in the Pacific Ocean. During the La Niña, the opposite picture is observed: the monsoon circulation intensifies in the Indian Ocean and the trade wind, in the Pacific Ocean. It is revealed that the South Pacific convergence zone is the main object of large-scale moisture exchange during ENSO: it moves unprecedentedly to the east of the Pacific Ocean during the warm phase and maximally approaches the northeast of Australia and Indonesia during the cold phase. The intensification of the convergence zone in the mentioned regions is accompanied by the active tropical cyclogenesis, intensive cloud formation, and heavy rains.     

Changes in El Niño and La Niña teleconnections over North Pacific–America in the global warming simulations

The change in the teleconnections of both El Niño and La Niña over the North Pacific and American regions due to a future greenhouse warming has been analyzed herein by means of diagnostics of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC-AR4) coupled general circulation models (CGCMs). Among the IPCC-AR4 CGCM simulations, the composites of the eight-member multimodel ensemble are analyzed. In most CGCMs, the tropical Pacific warming due to the increase of CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere promotes the main convection centers in the equatorial Pacific associated with both El Niño and La Niña to the east. The eastward shift of the convection center causes a systematic eastward shift of not only El Niño but also La Niña teleconnection patterns over the North Pacific and America, which is demonstrated in the composite maps of 500 hPa circulation, surface temperature, and the precipitation against El Niño and La Niña, as observed in a comparison between the pre-industrial and CO₂ doubling experiments. Thus, a systematic eastward migration of convection centers in the tropical Pacific associated with both El Niño and La Niña due to a future global warming commonly causes the eastward shift of the atmospheric teleconnection patterns over the Northern Hemisphere.     

Hydrometeorological conditions in the Barents Sea during El Niño of 1997–1998

Interadapted fields of main hydrophysical characteristics in the vicinity of hydrological sections carried out in 1997–1998 in the Barents Sea are obtained on the basis of model computations. The complex analysis of these materials and atmospheric situation in the region during 1997–1998 enabled to estimate quantitatively the variations of significant hydrodynamic conditions: the decrease in the inflow of rather warm and salty North Atlantic waters and the compensation inflow of polar waters, the decrease in total heat content and the weakening of water dynamics in the system of the general cyclonic circulation, and the increase in the ice coverage of the Barents Sea in anomalously cold winter 1997/98. It is revealed with a high degree of the confidence probability that the significant deviations from the normal conditions occur in response to the global El Niño disturbance which took place in the same years with the maximum values of the Southern Oscillation Index in January–March 1998.     

Precipitation response to La Niña and global warming in the Indo-Pacific

Recent studies have highlighted the nonlinear rainfall response to El Niño sea surface temperature (SST) events in the Indo-Pacific region and how this response might change over coming decades. Here we investigate the response to La Niña SST anomalies with and without global warming by performing idealised SST-forced experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model. The La Niña SST anomaly is multiplied by a factor \(1 \le \alpha \le 4\) and added to climatological SSTs. Similar experiments using El Niño SST anomalies were previously performed, in which large nonlinearities in the precipitation response were evident. We find that: (i) Under current climatic conditions, as \(\alpha\) increases, the precipitation responds in three ways: the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) dries and moves poleward, the maximum precipitation along the equator moves west, and the South Pacific convergence zone (SPCZ) narrows, intensifies, and elongates. For weak ( \(\alpha = 1\) ) La Niña events, the precipitation anomalies approximately mirror those from the El Niño events along the ITCZ and SPCZ, though there are some marked differences in the central-eastern Pacific. For stronger La Niña events ( \(\alpha > 1\) ), precipitation responds nonlinearly to SST anomalies, though the nonlinearities are smaller and differ spatially from the nonlinearities in the El Niño runs. (ii) The addition of a global warming SST pattern increases rainfall in the western Pacific and SPCZ, enhances the narrowing of the SPCZ, and increases the nonlinear response in the western Pacific. However, large La Niña events reduce the impact of global warming along the central-eastern equatorial Pacific as the global warming and La Niña SST anomalies have opposite signs in that region. (iii) The response to La Niña SST anomalies is driven primarily by changes in the atmospheric circulation, whereas the response to the global warming SST pattern is mainly driven by increases in atmospheric moisture. (iv) Large changes in La Niña-driven rainfall anomalies can occur in response to global warming, even if the La Nina SST anomalies relative to the warmer background state are completely unchanged.     

Proposed scheme for modeling of ocean equatorial currents in the phase of El Niño and La Niña: Implementation of the mesoscale turbulence theory

El Niño is a phenomenon of the catastrophic increase of surface temperature in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. It has a significant impact to weather of the American continent and western regions of the tropical Pacific, as well as on the weather and climate of entirely the Earth. Most important factors influencing El Niño are the wind, ocean currents and slope of the water surface (and temperature resulting from these factors) at the equator in the Pacific Ocean. The paper considers results of mathematical modeling of the equatorial Pacific Ocean currents in the El Niño and La Niña phases using the theory of mesoscale turbulence. This theory has been successfully tested in modeling of global circulation of atmosphere and ocean (Arsen’yev et al., 2010) and it has been able to calculate the ocean current changes at equator under changing external conditions. It is shown that the water currents at the equator have a four-tier vertical structure. The surface trade-wind current is located above the subsurface undercurrent, below which we observe the intermediate current, turning into the equatorial deep counter flow. When El Niño begins, the currents are rearranged, change signs and sometimes merge with each other. In the phase of maximum development of the phenomenon there is a two-tier structure: (1) surface current heading the American coast is underlain (below the depth of 440 m) by (2) deep equatorial current directed to the Indonesian coast. The theoretical calculations are compared with the physical observations of ocean currents in the El Niño and La Niña phases. The obtained results indicate that the proposed mathematical apparatus makes it possible to explain the set of physical observations in the Pacific Ocean.     

The use of integrated circulation index for the description of synoptic situations in the Pacific Ocean tropics during El Niño-Southern Oscillation extreme events

The potential of Petrosyants-Gushchina integrated circulation index in respect to the problem of synoptic analysis in low latitudes is considered. The compositional models of synoptic situations, which led to the formation of extreme conditions in weather and climate over the Pacific Ocean, are constructed using the computed indices according to the data of NCEP/NCAR reanalysis for 1950–2002 separately for El Niño and La Niña events. It is demonstrated that the barometric circulation pattern of synoptic processes in tropics, being reproduced using indices, indicates the main peculiarities of atmospheric circulation in low latitudes and can be the quantitative indicator of the whole circulation system of El Niño-Southern Oscillation over the Pacific Ocean.     

Contrasting the termination of moderate and extreme El Niño events in coupled general circulation models

As in the observed record, the termination of El Niño in the coupled IPCC-AR4 climate models involves meridional processes tied to the seasonal cycle. These meridional processes both precondition the termination of El Niño events in general and lead to a peculiar termination of extreme El Niño events (such as those of 1982–83 and 1997–98), in which the eastern equatorial Pacific warm sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) persist well into boreal spring/early-summer. The mechanisms controlling the peculiar termination of extreme El Niño events, which involves to the development of an equatorially centred intertropical convergence zone, are consistent across the four models that exhibit extreme El Niños and observational record, suggesting that this peculiar termination represents a general feature of extreme El Niños. Further, due to their unusual termination, extreme El Niños exhibit an apparent eastward propagation of their SSTA, which can strongly influence estimates of the apparent propagation of ENSO over multi-decadal periods. Interpreting these propagation changes as evidence of changes in the underlying dynamical feedbacks behind El Niño could therefore be misleading, given the strong influence of a single extreme event.     

The importance of the eastward zonal current for generating extreme El Niño

Extreme El Niño (e.g., 1983/1983 and 1997/1998) causes severe weather and climate impacts globally, but the associated dynamics is not fully understood. The present study shows that advection of mean temperature by anomalous eastward zonal current plays an important role in producing such extreme events especially during the early part of the developing period. While the climatological direction of the upper oceanic current in the equatorial Pacific is westward, at times the direction reverses. These eastward current events are well distinguished from the normal, westward conditions. The upper-layer zonal current in the equatorial Pacific is basically in geostrophic balance and forced by wind stress. However, in the case of the eastward zonal current events, persistent westerly winds are observed in the Western Pacific, and the current becomes synchronized with the westerly wind stress above. The advection of the mean temperature by the anomalous zonal current in the early developing period always precedes strong El Niño, though it does not significantly contribute to the growth of La Niña, neutral, and moderate El Niño; and is the major contributor of asymmetry in the early developing phase.     

Analysis of the Winter Cloud-to-Ground Lightning Activity and Its Synoptic Background in China during 2010-20

Cloud-to-ground(CG)lightning data and the ECMWF ERA-Interim reanalysis dataset are analyzed to gain insight into the spatiotemporal distribution and synoptic background of winter-season CG flashes between December 2010 and February 2020 in China.We identify three Winter Lightning Frequent Areas(WLAs):the southwest side of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau(WLA1),the east side of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau(WLA2),and the Poyang Lake Plain(WLA3).The CG lightning flashes most frequently occur at local midnight and have a monthly peak in February.The CG lightning in WLA1 is mostly generated in non-frontal weather;however,the lightning in WLA2 and WLA3 mostly occurs in frontal systems.The frontal circulation situation is divided into four typical types:transversal trough after high pressure,low vortex,confrontational convergence,and asymptotic convergence.In all typical weather patterns,the lightning occurs downstream of a 500 hPa trough and is accompanied by a southwesterly low-level jet.The convective parameters of winter thunderstorms differ greatly from those of summer thunderstorms.The maximum convective available potential energy(MCAPE)and K-index(KI)are more useful metrics than convective available potential energy(CAPE)and Showalter index(SI)during winter.This study further deepens the understanding of the distribution characteristics of winter CG lightning in China,which motivates further research to improve the ability of winter thunderstorm prediction.     

Response of the tropical Indian Ocean SST to decay phase of La Niña and associated processes

Delayed impact of El Niño on Tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variations and associated physical mechanisms are well documented by several studies. However, TIO SST evolution during the decay phase of La Niña and related processes are not adequately addressed before. Strong cooling associated with La Niña decay over the TIO could influence climate over the Indian Oceanic rim including Indian summer monsoon circulation and remotely northwest Pacific circulation. Thus understanding the TIO basin-wide cooling and related physical mechanisms during decaying La Niña years is important. Composite analyses revealed that negative SST anomalies allied to La Niña gradually dissipate from its mature phase (winter) till subsequent summer in central and eastern Pacific. In contrast, magnitude of negative SST anomalies in TIO, induced by La Niña, starts increasing from winter and attains their peak values in early summer. It is found that variations in heat flux play an important role in SST cooling over the central and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and part of Arabian Sea from late winter to early summer during the decay phase of La Niña. Ocean dynamical processes are mainly responsible for the evolution of southern TIO SST cooling. Strong signals of westward propagating upwelling Rossby waves between 10°S to 20°S are noted throughout (the decaying phase of La Niña) spring and summer. Anomalous cyclonic wind stress curl to the south of the equator is responsible for triggering upwelling Rossby waves over the southeastern TIO. Further, upwelling Rossby waves are also apparent in the Arabian Sea from spring to summer and partly contributing to the SST cooling. Heat budget analysis reveals that negative SST/MLT (mixed layer temperature) anomalies over the Arabian Sea are mostly controlled by heat flux from winter to spring and vertical advection plays an important role during early summer. Vertical and horizontal advection terms primarily contribute to the SST cooling anomalies over southern TIO and the Bay of Bengal cooling is primarily dominated by heat flux. Further we have discussed influence of TIO cooling on local rainfall variations.