Movements of the Western Pacific Warm Pool Centroid and Their Relationship to Sea Surface Temperature Changes in Ni(n)o Regions

By using monthly historical sea surface temperature (SST) data for the years from 1950 to 2000, the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP) climatology and anomalies are studied in this paper. The analysis of WPWP centroid (WPWPC)movement anomalies and the Nino-3 region SST anomalies(SSTA) seems to reveal a close, linear relation between the zonal WPWPC and Nino-3 region SSTA, which suggests that a 9° anomaly of the zonal displacement from the climatological position of the WPWPC corresponds to about a 1℃ anomaly in the Nino-3 region area-mean SST. This study connects the WPWPC zonal displacement with the Nino-3 SSTA, and it may be helpful in better understanding the fact that the WPWP eastward extension is conducive to the Nino-3 region SST increase during an El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event.