Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Anomalous climatic conditions associated with the El Niño Modoki during boreal winter of 2009

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The winter months from December 2009 to February 2010 witnessed extreme conditions affecting lives of millions of people around the globe. During this winter, the El Niño Modoki in the tropical Pacific was a dominant climatic mode. In this study, exclusive impacts of the El Niño Modoki are evaluated with an Atmospheric General Circulation Model. Sensitivity experiments are conducted by selectively specifying anomalies of the observed sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific. Observed data are also used in the diagnostics to trace the source of forced Rossby waves. Both the observational results and the model simulated results show that the heating associated with the El Niño Modoki in the central tropical Pacific accounted for most of the anomalous conditions observed over southern parts of North America, Europe and over most countries in the Southern Hemisphere viz. Uruguay. Unlike those, the model-simulated results suggest that the anomalously high precipitation observed over Australia and Florida might be associated with the narrow eastern Pacific heating observed during the season.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ambrizzi T, Hoskins BJ (1997) Stationary Rossby wave propagation in a baroclinic atmosphere. Q J R Meteorol Soc 123:919–928

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashok K, Yamagata T (2009) Climate change: the El Niño with a difference. Nature 461:481–484

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashok K, Behera SK, Rao SA, Weng H, Yamagata T (2007) El Niño Modoki and its possible teleconnection. J Geophys Res 112:C11007. doi:10.1029/2006JC003798

  • Chou M-D (1992) A solar radiation model for use in climate studies. J Atmos Sci 49:762–772

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chou M-D, Lee K-T, Tsay S-C, Fu Q (1999) Parameterization for cloud longwave scattering for use in atmospheric models. J Clim 12:159–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen J, Foster J, Barlow M, Saito K, Jones J (2010) Winter 2009–10: a case study of an extreme Arctic Oscillation event. Geophys Res Lett 37:L17707

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ek MB, Mitchell KE, Lin Y, Rogers E, Grunmann P, Koren V, Gayno G, Tarpley JD (2003) Implementation of Noah Land Surface Model advances in National Center for Environmental Prediction operational Eta model. J Geophys Res 108(D22):8851

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldstein SB (2002) The recent trend and variance increase of annular mode. J Clim 13:617–633

    Google Scholar 

  • Feng J, Chen W, Tam C-Y, Zhou W (2010) Difference impacts of El Niño and El Niño Modoki on china rainfall in the decaying phases. Int J Climatol. doi:10.1002/joc.2217

    Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Serrano J, Rodriguex-Fonseca B, Blade I, Zurita-Gotor P, de la Camara A (2010) Rotational atmospheric circulation during north Atlantic-European winter: the influence of ENSO. Clim Dyn. doi:10.1007/s00382-010-0968-y

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill AE (1980) Some simple solutions for heat-induced tropical circulation. Q J R Meteorol Soc 106:447–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoerling MP, Kumar A (1997) Why do North American climate anomalies differ from one El Niño event to another ? Geophys Res Lett 24:1059–1062

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoerling MP, Ting M, Kumar A (1995) Zonal flow-Stationary wave relationship during El Niño: implications for Seasonal forecasting. J Clim 8:1838–1852

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoerling MP, Hurrell JW, Xu T (2001) Tropical origins for recent north Atlantic climate change. Science 292:90–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hong S-Y, Pan H-L (1996) Nonlocal boundary layer vertical diffusion in a medium range forecast model. Mon Weather Rev 124:2322–2339

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins BJ, Ambrizzi T (1993) Rossby wave propagation on a realistic longitudinally varying flow. J Atmos Sci 50:1661–1671

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins BJ, Karoly DJ (1981) The steady linear response of a spherical atmosphere to thermal and orographic forcing. J Atmos Sci 38:1179–1196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janowiak JE, Xie P (1999) CAMS_OPI: a global satellite-rain gauge merged product for real-time precipitation monitoring applications. J Clim 12:3335–3342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jia X, Lin H, Derome J (2009) The influence of tropical pacific forcing on the Arctic oscillation. Clim Dyn 32:495–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalnay E et al (1996) The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 77:437–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanamitsu M et al (2002) NCEP dynamical seasonal forecast system 2000. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 83:1019–1037

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karoly DJ (1989) Southern hemisphere circulation features associated with El Niño-Southern oscillation events. J Clim 2:1239–1252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • L’Heureux M, Butler A, Jha B, Kumar A, Wang W (2010) Unusual extremes in the negative phase of the Arctic oscillation during 2009. Geophys Res Lett 37:L10704

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li S, Hoerling MP, Peng S, Weickmann KM (2006) The annular response to tropical Pacific SST forcing. J Clim 19:1802–1819

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsumura S, Huang G, Xie S-P, Yamazaki K (2010) SST-forced and internal variability of the atmosphere in an ensemble GCM simulation. J Meteorol Soc Jpn 88:43–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsuno T (1966) Quasi-geostrophic motions in the equatorial area. J Meteorol Soc Jpn 44:25–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Moorthi S, Suarez MJ (1992) Relaxed Arakawa-Schubert. A parameterization of moist convection for general circulation models. Mon Weather Rev 120:978–1002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quadrelli R, Wallace JM (2002) Dependence of the structure of the northern hemisphere annular mode on the polarity of ENSO. Geophys Res Lett 29:2132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ratnam JV, Behera SK, Masumoto Y, Takahashi K, Yamagata T (2010) Pacific origin for the 2009 Indian summer monsoon failure. Geophys Res Lett 37:L07807

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds RW, Smith TM, Liu C, Chelton DB, Casey KS, Schlax MG (2007) Daily high-resolution blended analyses for sea surface temperature. J Clim 20:5473–5496

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shukla J, Wallace JM (1983) Numerical simulation of the atmospheric response to equatorial Pacific Sea surface temperature anomalies. J Atmos Sci 40:1613–1630

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takaya K, Nakamura H (2001) A formulation of a phase-independent wave activity flux for stationary and migratory quasigeostrophic eddies on a zonal varying basic flow. J Atmos Sci 58:608–627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taschetto AS, Haarsma RJ, Sengupta A, Ummenhofer CC, Hill KJ, England MJ (2010) Australian monsoon variability driven by a Gill-Matsuno type response to central west Pacific warming. J Clim 23:4717–4736

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson DWJ, Wallace JM (2001) Regional climate impacts of the Northern Hemisphere annular mode. Science 293:85–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ting M, Sardeshmukh PD (1993) Factors determining the extratropical response to equatorial diabetic heating anomalies. J Atmos Sci 50:907–918

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ting M, Hoerling MP, Xu T, Kumar A (1996) Northern hemisphere teleconnection patterns during extreme phases of the zonal-mean circulation. J Clim 9:2614–2632

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toniazo T, Scaife AA (2006) The influence of ENSO on winter north Atlantic climate. Geophys Res Lett 33:L24704

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trenberth KE, Branstator GW, Karoly D, Kumar A, Lau N-C, Ropelwski C (1998) Progress during TOGA in understanding and modeling global teleconnections associated with tropical sea surface temperatures. J Geophys Res 103:14292–14324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace JM, Gutzler DS (1981) Teleconnections in the geopotential height field during the Northern Hemisphere winter. Mon Weather Rev 109:784–811

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weng H, Ashok K, Behera SK, Rao SA, Yamagata T (2007) Impacts of recent El Niño Modoki on dry/wet conditions in the Pacific rim during boreal summer. Clim Dyn 29:113–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weng H, Behera SK, Yamagata T (2009) Anomalous winter climate conditions in the Pacific rim during recent El Niño Modoki and El Niño events. Clim Dyn 32:663–674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamashita Y, Tanaka HL, Takahashi M (2005) Observational analysis of the local structure of wave activity flux associated with the maintenance of Arctic oscillation index. SOLA 1:53–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the reviewers for the insightful comments which improved the quality of the manuscript. The NCEP reanalysis data was provided by NOAA/OAR/ESRL/PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA from their web site at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd. The precipitation data was obtained from ftp://ftp.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/precip/data-req/cams_opi_v0208/. The sea surface temperature data was provided by National Climatic Data Center, USA from their web site.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Global Change, 3173-25 Showa-machi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, 236-0001, Kanagawa, Japan

    J. V. Ratnam, S. K. Behera & Y. Masumoto

  2. Application Laboratory, Yokohama, Japan

    J. V. Ratnam, S. K. Behera, K. Takahashi & T. Yamagata

  3. Earth Simulator Center, Yokohama, Japan

    K. Takahashi

  4. School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Y. Masumoto & T. Yamagata

Authors
  1. J. V. Ratnam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. K. Behera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Y. Masumoto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. K. Takahashi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. T. Yamagata
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. V. Ratnam.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ratnam, J.V., Behera, S.K., Masumoto, Y. et al. Anomalous climatic conditions associated with the El Niño Modoki during boreal winter of 2009. Clim Dyn 39, 227–238 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1108-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1108-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation