ON THE INFLUENCES OF LARGE-SCALE INHOMOGENEITY OF SEA TEMPERATURE UPON THE OCEANIC WAVES IN THE TROPICAL REGIONS——PART I : LINEAR THEORETICAL ANALYSIS

By using a linear oceanic mixed layer model, the influences of the horizontal gradients of sea surface temperature (SST) and the depth variations of the mixed layer upon tropical oceanic waves are investigated. The equatorial Rossby wave will be modified and a kind of slower thermal wave has been revealed under the influences of inhomogeneities of large-scale sea temperature field. An interesting result is that the propagating direction of the thermal wave is opposite to that of the classical Rossby wave. The result also shows that the thermal wave becomes dominant when the meridional gradient of sea temperature in the mixed layer exceeds a critical value. As a first approximation, it seems that both waves obtained by this study may be used to explain the observational facts that the SST anomalies can usually propagate in both directions, that is, eastward and westward, during the El Nino events.     

On the influences of large-scale inhomogeneity of sea temperature upon the oceanic waves in the tropical regions—part II: Linear numerical experiments

By using a linear oceanic mixed layer model, the long period waves in the tropical ocean are investi-gated numerically. Due to the inhomogeneity of the large-scale average sea temperature field of the ocean in tropical regions, besides the westward propagating equatorial Rossby wave to be modified, there will be a kind of long period thermal wave which propagates eastward under certain oceanic background conditions. Under the influences of these two kinds of waves, the propagating and evolving processes of the sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) are dearly shown by numerical experiments. The results of numerical ex-periments are consistent with the ones obtained by the theoretical analysis in Part I. The possible relation-ship between these two kinds of waves and El Nino events is also discussed indirectly.     

Seasonal Phase-Locking of Peak Events in the Eastern Indian Ocean

The sea surface temperature （SST） anomaly of the eastern Indian Ocean （EIO） exhibits cold anomalies in the boreal summer or fall during E1 Nino development years and warm anomalies in winter or spring following the E1 Nino events. There also tend to be warm anomalies in the boreal summer or fall during La Nina development years and cold anomalies in winter or spring following the La Nina events. The seasonal phase-locking of SST change in the EIO associated with E1 Nino/Southern Oscillation is linked to the variability of convection over the maritime continent, which induces an atmospheric Rossby wave over the EIO. Local air-sea interaction exerts different effects on SST anomalies, depending on the relationship between the Rossby wave and the mean flow related to the seasonal migration of the buffer zone, which shifts across the equator between summer and winter. The summer cold events start with cooling in the Timor Sea, together with increasing easterly flow along the equator. Negative SST anomalies develop near Sumatra, through the interaction between the atmospheric Rossby wave and the underneath sea surface. These SST anomalies are also contributed to by the increased upwelling of the mixed layer and the equatorward temperature advection in the boreal fall. As the buffer zone shifts across the equator towards boreal winter, the anomalous easterly flow tends to weaken the mean flow near the equator, and the EIO SST increases due to the reduction of latent heat flux from the sea surface. As a result, wintertime SST anomalies appear with a uniform and nearly basin-wide pattern beneath the easterly anomalies. These SST anomalies are also caused by the increase in solar radiation associated with the anticyclonic atmospheric Rossby wave over the EIO. Similarly, the physical processes of the summer warm events, which are followed by wintertime cold SST anomalies, can be explained by the changes in atmospheric and oceanic fields with opposite signs to those anomalies described above.     

THE WARMING MECHANISM IN THE SOUTHERN ARABIAN SEA DURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAN OCEAN DIPOLE EVENTS

This study aims to explore the relative role of oceanic dynamics and surface heat fluxes in the warming of southern Arabian Sea and southwest Indian Ocean during the development of Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) events by using National Center for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) daily reanalysis data and Global Ocean Data Assimilation System (GODAS) monthly mean ocean reanalysis data from 1982 to 2013, based on regression analysis, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis and combined with a 2? layer dynamic upper-ocean model. The results show that during the initial stage of IOD events, warm downwelling Rossby waves excited by an anomalous anticyclone over the west Indian Peninsula, southwest Indian Ocean and southeast Indian Ocean lead to the warming of the mixed layer by reducing entrainment cooling. An anomalous anticyclone over the west Indian Peninsula weakens the wind over the Arabian Sea and Somali coast, which helps decrease the sea surface heat loss and shallow the surface mixed layer, and also contributes to the sea surface temperature (SST) warming in the southern Arabian Sea by inhibiting entrainment. The weakened winds increase the SST along the Somali coast by inhibiting upwelling and zonal advection. The wind and net sea surface heat flux anomalies are not significant over the southwest Indian Ocean. During the antecedent stage of IOD events, the warming of the southern Arabian Sea is closely connected with the reduction of entrainment cooling caused by the Rossby waves and the weakened wind. With the appearance of an equatorial easterly wind anomaly, the warming of the southwest Indian Ocean is not only driven by weaker entrainment cooling caused by the Rossby waves, but also by the meridional heat transport carried by Ekman flow. The anomalous sea surface heat flux plays a key role to damp the warming of the west pole of the IOD.     

INSTABILITY OF THE OCEANIC WAVES IN THE TROPICAL REGION

In this paper,the effects of the large-scale mean sea temperature fields of the tropical ocean and the zonal current field (southern equatorial current) have been comprehensively entered in consideration on the basis of Chao and Ji (1985),and Ji and Chao (1986),the equatorial oceanic waves of the tropical ocean have been discussed by use of linearized primitive equations,then,the significant influence of the climatic background fields of the tropical ocean upon the oceanic waves of this region has been further testified.When very cold water appears in the tropical region,and the southern equatorial current is also relatively strong,the effect of the Rossby wave weakens,as a consequence,there are substitutive slow waves (i.e.thermal waves) which travel in opposite direction (eastward) to the Rossby wave.The characteristics of the slow wave are similar to those of Rossby waves,only the travelling direction is opposite.Under a certain environmental background field,the slow wave and the modified Rossby wave may be instable.With this conclusion,the mechanism of the occurrence,development and propagation of El Nino events has been studied.It is pointed out that the opposite travelling direction of the thermal wave and Rossby wave will bring repectively into action under different marine environmental background fields.The physical causes for that the abnormal warm water inclines to occur along the South American coast have also been explored in this paper.     

简单的热带海气耦合波——Rossby波的相互作用

在本文中分析了当大气和海洋中未经耦合前的自由波均为Rossby模时,经相互作用后所激发出的耦合波的物理性质。结果表明,由于大气和海洋的背景状态不同,可以激发出两类不稳定耦合Rossby波。一类波要求大气的背景场是斜压的,而海洋的混合层较深,即热容量较大。这是一类弱相互作用的不稳定波。另一类要求大气的背景场趋于正压性,而海洋的混合层较浅,即热容量较小。这是一类强相互作用的不稳定波。色散关系的计算表明,这两类不稳定波产生的物理机制也不相同。文中对解不同截断模的本征值问题提出了几种数学方法,同时还进一步提出了一种使大气和海洋自由Rossby模的色散关系不受歪曲的处理方法。     

简单热带海气耦合模型中不同扰动形式间的耦合作用

在局地热平衡情况下研究了简单热带海气耦合模式中不同扰动形式间的耦合，依次讨论了由大气准定常Kelvin波与海洋R0ssby波、大气准定常Rossby波与海洋Kelvin波、大气准定常Kelvin波与海洋KelVin波、大气准定常Rossby波与海洋Rossby波组成的耦合系统的性质，并研究了存在于其中的耦合扰动的特征。     

Midlatitude unstable air-sea interaction with atmospheric transient eddy dynamical forcing in an analytical coupled model

While recent observational studies have shown the critical role of atmospheric transient eddy (TE) activities in midlatitude unstable air-sea interaction, there is still a lack of a theoretical framework characterizing such an interaction. In this study, an analytical coupled air-sea model with inclusion of the TE dynamical forcing is developed to investigate the role of such a forcing in midlatitude unstable air-sea interaction. In this model, the atmosphere is governed by a barotropic quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity equation forced by surface diabatic heating and TE vorticity forcing. The ocean is governed by a baroclinic Rossby wave equation driven by wind stress. Sea surface temperature (SST) is determined by mixing layer physics. Based on detailed observational analyses, a parameterized linear relationship between TE vorticity forcing and meridional second-order derivative of SST is proposed to close the equations. Analytical solutions of the coupled model show that the midlatitude air-sea interaction with atmospheric TE dynamical forcing can destabilize the oceanic Rossby wave within a wide range of wavelengths. For the most unstable growing mode, characteristic atmospheric streamfunction anomalies are nearly in phase with their oceanic counterparts and both have a northeastward phase shift relative to SST anomalies, as the observed. Although both surface diabatic heating and TE vorticity forcing can lead to unstable air-sea interaction, the latter has a dominant contribution to the unstable growth. Sensitivity analyses further show that the growth rate of the unstable coupled mode is also influenced by the background zonal wind and the air–sea coupling strength. Such an unstable air-sea interaction provides a key positive feedback mechanism for midlatitude coupled climate variabilities.

     

Growing interfacially coupled oscillations of the ocean–atmosphere

A stability analysis of the coupled ocean–atmosphere is presented which shows that the potential energy (PE) of the upper layer of the ocean is available to generate coupled growing planetary waves. An independent analysis suggests that the growth of these waves would be maintained in the presence of oceanic friction. The growing waves are a consequence of relaxing the rigid lid approximation on the ocean, thus allowing an upward transfer of energy across the sea surface. Using a two and a half layer model consisting of an atmospheric planetary boundary layer, coupled with a two layer ocean comprising an active upper layer and a lower layer in which the velocity perturbation is vanishingly small, it is shown that coupled unstable waves are generated, which extract PE from the main thermocline. The instability analysis is an extension of earlier work [Tellus 44A (1992) 67], which considered the coupled instability of an atmospheric planetary boundary layer coupled with an oceanic mixed layer, in which unstable waves were generated which extract PE from the seasonal thermocline. The unstable wave is an atmospheric divergent barotropic Rossby wave, which is steered by the zonal wind velocity, and has a wavelength of about 6000 km, and propagates eastward at the speed of the deep ocean current. It is argued that this instability, which has a multidecadal growth time constant, may be generated in the Southern Ocean, and that its properties are similar to observations of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (ACW).     

The Dynamics of ENSO Anomaly as Revealed in Ensemble Climate Simulations-Impact of Mean Stationary Wave

A series of climate ensemble experiments using the climate model from National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) were performed to exam impact of sea surface temperature (SST) on dynamics of El-Nino/South-crn Oscillation (ENSO).A specific question addressed in this paper is how important the mean stationary wave influences anomalous Rossby wave trains or teleconnection patterns as often observed during ENSO events.Evidences from those ensemble simulations argue that ENSO anomalies,especially over Pacific-North America (PNA) region,appear to be a result of modification for climatological mean stationary wave forced by persistent tropical SST anomalies Therefore,the role of SST forcing in maintaining climate basic state is emphasized.In this argument,the interaction between atmospheric internal dynamics and external forcing,such as SST is a key element to understand and ultimately predict ENSO.