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Quantifying the energetic feedbacks in ENSO

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Abstract

Energetic feedbacks play important roles during the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Here we conduct a thorough analysis of the radiative and non-radiative vertical fluxes and compare them to horizontal energy transport to provide a complete view of the energetics of ENSO. Our analyses affirm that cloud feedbacks are the most important radiative feedbacks, with cloud shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) feedbacks dominating at the surface and in the atmosphere respectively. Oceanic energy transport dominates the oceanic heat content change in the developing phase and has significant effects on the sea surface temperature (SST) about 6 months earlier than vertical fluxes. Atmospheric horizontal energy transport is also important, acting to quickly remove the surplus of energy provided by the convergence of vertical energy fluxes in the atmosphere. The differential diabatic heating between the Central Pacific and the Warm Pool, induced by the latent heat release as well as LW radiation, strengthens the anomalous circulation and reinforces the Bjerknes positive feedback to strengthen the SST anomaly. This work reveals that the differential heating is more strongly correlated with the SST anomaly in the Central Pacific than the local SW negative feedback of clouds and supports the idea that the overall atmospheric effect is likely a positive feedback that acts to strengthen ENSO.

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Acknowledgements

The ERAI data used in this research can be accessed from https://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/data/interim-full-moda/levtype=sfc/. The JRA55 dataset can be accessed from https://rda.ucar.edu/datasets/ds628.0/. The ERA5 dataset is from https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/-!/search?text=ERA5&type=dataset. The CERES data is from https://ceres.larc.nasa.gov/order_data.php. The TRMM data can be accessed from https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets/TRMM_3B43_7/summary. The radiative kernel data from Yi Huang’s homepage (https://huanggroup.wordpress.com/research/). HH acknowledges a visiting student fellowship provided by China Scholarship Council (CSC) that supported her visit to McGill University where this research is conducted. YH acknowledges a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2019-04511). YYH acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grants of 41530423 and 41761144072.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Han Huang & Yongyun Hu

  2. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Han Huang & Yi Huang

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  1. Han Huang
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  2. Yi Huang
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Correspondence to Han Huang.

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Huang, H., Huang, Y. & Hu, Y. Quantifying the energetic feedbacks in ENSO. Clim Dyn 56, 139–153 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05469-y

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