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What controls equatorial Atlantic winds in boreal spring?

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Abstract

The factors controlling equatorial Atlantic winds in boreal spring are examined using both observations and general circulation model (GCM) simulations from the coupled model intercomparison phase 5. The results show that the prevailing surface easterlies flow against the attendant pressure gradient and must therefore be maintained by other terms in the momentum budget. An important contribution comes from meridional advection of zonal momentum but the dominant contribution is the vertical transport of zonal momentum from the free troposphere to the surface. This implies that surface winds are strongly influenced by conditions in the free troposphere, chiefly pressure gradients and, to a lesser extent, meridional advection. Both factors are linked to the patterns of deep convection. Applying these findings to GCM errors indicates, that, consistent with the results of previous studies, the persistent westerly surface wind bias found in most GCMs is due mostly to precipitation errors, in particular excessive precipitation south of the equator over the ocean and deficient precipitation over equatorial South America. Free tropospheric influences also dominate the interannual variability of surface winds in boreal spring. GCM experiments with prescribed climatological sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) indicate that the free tropospheric influences are mostly associated with internal atmospheric variability. Since the surface wind anomalies in boreal spring are crucial to the development of warm SST events (Atlantic Niños), the results imply that interannual variability in the region may rely far less on coupled air–sea feedbacks than is the case in the tropical Pacific.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, the US Department of Energy’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison which provides coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure for CMIP, and the climate modeling groups for making available their model output. SPX is supported by NOAA.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Ingo Richter, Swadhin K. Behera, Takeshi Doi & Yukio Masumoto

  2. Application Laboratory, JAMSTEC, Yokohama, Japan

    Ingo Richter, Swadhin K. Behera & Takeshi Doi

  3. Earth Simulator Center, JAMSTEC, Yokohama, Japan

    Bunmei Taguchi

  4. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Shang-Ping Xie

Authors
  1. Ingo Richter
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  2. Swadhin K. Behera
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  3. Takeshi Doi
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  4. Bunmei Taguchi
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  5. Yukio Masumoto
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  6. Shang-Ping Xie
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Correspondence to Ingo Richter.

Additional information

This paper is a contribution to the special issue on tropical Atlantic variability and coupled model climate biases that have been the focus of the recently completed Tropical Atlantic Climate Experiment (TACE), an international CLIVAR program (http://www.clivar.org/organization/atlantic/tace). This special issue is coordinated by William Johns, Peter Brandt, and Ping Chang, representatives of the TACE Observations and TACE Modeling and Synthesis working groups.

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Richter, I., Behera, S.K., Doi, T. et al. What controls equatorial Atlantic winds in boreal spring?. Clim Dyn 43, 3091–3104 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2170-0

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