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Relationships between ENSO and the East Asian–western North Pacific monsoon: observations versus 18 CMIP5 models

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Abstract

The western North Pacific anomalous anticyclone (WNPAC) plays an essential role in linking El Niño and the East Asian–western North Pacific monsoon. The WNPAC and the corresponding WNP anomalous cyclone (WNPC) associated with La Niña are studied by examining the pre-industrial control runs of 18 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 models. The WNPAC is asymmetric with the WNPC during ENSO mature winters, which can be reproduced by seven out of the eighteen models. Based on the differences between the seven models and the other models, it is verified that the asymmetry results from the combined effects of the asymmetric remote forcing from the equatorial central-eastern Pacific and the asymmetric local sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. It is further demonstrated that the asymmetric circulation anomalies over the tropical WNP contribute to the asymmetric decaying rates between El Niño and La Niña. Those models that can (cannot) simulate the asymmetry between the WNPAC and WNPC tend to reproduce ENSO with asymmetric (symmetric) decaying rates. In El Niño decaying summers, the WNPAC is still maintained due to the sequential effects of the local forcing of the underlying cold SST anomalies remaining from the previous winter and spring, and the remote forcing from the tropical Indian Ocean. Multi-model results show that the coupling of the local cold SST anomalies and the WNPAC forms a damping mode, which is only conducive to maintaining the WNPAC in the early summer, while the response of the WNPAC to the remote forcing from the tropical Indian Ocean intensifies from June to July, concurring with the establishment of the climatological WNP summer monsoon trough.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modeling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modeling groups (listed in Table 1 of this paper) for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provides coordinating support, and led the development of the software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. This work was supported by the CAS Strategic Priority Research Program (Grant No. XDA05110305), a National Program on Key Basic Research project (2012CB955202), the NSFC (Grant Nos. 41005040 and 41023002), and the China Meteorological Administration (Grant No. GYHY201006019).

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  1. LASG, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mailbox 9804, Beijing, 100029, China

    Bo Wu & Tianjun Zhou

  2. Joint Center for Global Change Studies (JCGCS), Beijing, 100875, China

    Tianjun Zhou

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  1. Bo Wu
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Correspondence to Bo Wu.

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Wu, B., Zhou, T. Relationships between ENSO and the East Asian–western North Pacific monsoon: observations versus 18 CMIP5 models. Clim Dyn 46, 729–743 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2609-y

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