Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Impacts of two types of El Niño on atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere

  • Published:
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Based on NCEP/NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research) reanalysis data from 1979 to 2010, the impacts of two types of El Niño on atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) are analyzed. It is shown that, when a warming event occurs in the equatorial eastern Pacific (EP El Niño), there is a negative sea level pressure (SLP) anomaly in the eastern Pacific and a positive one in the western Pacific. Besides, there exists a negative anomaly between 40°S and 60°S and a positive anomaly to the south of 60°S. When a warming event in the central Pacific (CP El Niño) occurs, there appears a negative SLP anomaly in the central Pacific and a positive SLP anomaly in the eastern and western Pacific, but the SLP anomalies are not so evident in the SH extratropics. In particular, the Pacific-South America (PSA) pattern induced by the CP El Niño is located more northwestward, with a weaker anomaly compared with the EP El Niño. This difference is directly related with the different position of heating centers associated with the two types of El Niño events. Because the SST anomaly associated with CP El Niño is located more westward than that associated with EP El Niño, the related heating center tends to move westward and the response of SH atmospheric circulation to the tropical heating changes accordingly, thus exciting a different position of the PSA pattern. It is also noted that the local meridional cell plays a role in the SH high latitudes during EP El Niño. The anomalous ascending motion due to the enhancement of convection over the eastern Pacific leads to an enhancement of the local Hadley cell and the meridional cell in the middle and high latitudes, which in turn induces an anomalous descending motion and the related positive anomaly of geopotential height over the Amundsen-Bellingshausen Sea.

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

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ashok, K., and T. Yamagata, 2009: The El Niño with a difference. Nature, 461, 481–484.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ashok, K., S. Behera, S. A. Rao, H. Weng, and T. Yamagata, 2007: El Niño Modoki and its teleconnection. J. Geophys. Res., 112, C11, doi: 10.1029/2006JC003798.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cai, W., and T. Cowan, 2009: La Niña Modoki impacts Australia autumn rainfall variability. Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L12805, doi: 10.1029/2009GL037885.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connolley, W. M., 1997: Variability in annual mean circulation in southern high latitudes. Climate Dyn., 13, 745–756.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng, J., and J. Li, 2011: Influence of El Niño Modoki on spring rainfall over south China. J. Geophys. Res., 116, D13102, doi: 10.1029/2010JD015160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng, J., L. Wang, W. Chen, S. K. Fong, and K. C. Leong, 2010: Different impacts of two types of Pacific Ocean warming on southeast Asian rainfall during boreal winter. J. Geophys. Res., 115, D24112, doi: 10.1029/2010JD014761.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng, J., W. Chen, C.-Y. Tam, and W. Zhou, 2011: Different impacts of El Niño and El Niño Modoki on China rainfall in the decaying phases. Int. J. Climatol., 31, 2091–2101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garreaud, R. D., and D. S. Battisti, 1999: Interannual (ENSO) and interdecadal (ENSO-like) variability in the Southern Hemisphere tropospheric circulation. J. Climate, 12, 2113–2123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gill, A. E., 1980: Some simple solutions for heat-induced tropical circulation. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 106, 447–462.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huffman, G. J., and Coauthors, 1997: The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) combined precipitation dataset. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 5–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalnay, E. M., and Coauthors, 1996: The NCEP/NCAR40 year reanalysis project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 437–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kao, H. Y., and J. Y. Yu, 2009: Contrasting eastern-Pacific and central-Pacific types of ENSO. J. Climate, 22, 615–632.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karoly, D. J., 1989: Southern Hemisphere circulation features associated with El Niño-Southern Oscillation events. J. Climate, 2, 1239–1252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kidson, J. W., 1999: Principal modes of Southern Hemisphere low-frequency variability obtained from NCEP-NCAR reanalyses. J. Climate, 12, 2808–2830.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiladis, G. N., and K. C. Mo, 1998: Interannual and intraseasonal variability in the Southern Hemisphere. Chapter 8, Meteorology of the Southern Hemisphere, Karoly and Vincent, Eds., American Meteorological Society Monograph, No. 27, Boston, Massachussetts, 307–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kug, J., F. Jin, and S. An, 2009: Two types of El Niño events: Cold tongue El Niño and warm pool El Niño. J. Climate, 22, 1499–1515.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, K., B. Rajagopalan, M. Hoerling, G. Bates, and M. Cane, 2006: Unraveling the mystery of Indian monsoon failure during El Niño. Science, 314, 115–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, T., and M. J. McPhaden, 2010: Increasing intensity of El Niño in the central-equatorial Pacific. Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L14603, doi: 10.1029/2010GL04407.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liebmann, B., and C. A. Smith, 1996: Description of a complete (interpolated) outgoing longwave radiation dataset. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 1275–1277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, C. Z., and F. Xue, 2010: The relationship between the canonical ENSO and the phase transition of the Antarctic oscillation at the quasi-quadrennial timescale. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 29, 28–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsuno, T., 1966: Quasi-geotropic motions in the equatorial area. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 44, 25–42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mo, K. C., and W. Higgins, 1998: The Pacific-South American modes and tropical convection during the Southern Hemisphere winter. Mon. Wea. Rev., 126, 1581–1596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nigam, S., 1994: The dynamical basis for the Asian summer monsoon rainfall-El Niño relationship. J. Climate, 7, 1750–1771.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rayner, N. A., D. E. Parker, C. K. Folland, L. V. Alexander, D. P. Rowell, E. C. Kent, and A. Kaplan, 2003: Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century. J. Geophys. Res., 108, 4407, doi: 10.1029/2002JD002670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renwick, J. A., 1998: ENSO-related variability in the frequency of South Pacific blocking. Mon. Wea. Rev., 126, 3117–3123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renwick, J. A., and M. J. Revell, 1999: Blocking over the South Pacific and Rossby wave propagation. Mon. Wea. Rev., 127, 2233–2247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Revell, M. J., J. W. Kidson, and G. N. Kiladis, 2001: Interpreting low-frequency modes of Southern Hemisphere atmospheric variability as the rotational response to divergent forcing. Mon. Wea. Rev., 129, 2416–2425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taschetto, A. S., and M. H. England, 2009: El Niño Modoki impacts on Australian rainfall. J. Climate, 22, 3167–3174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Loon, H., and D. J. Shea, 1987: The Southern Oscillation. Part VI: Anomalies of sea level pressure on the Southern Hemisphere and of Pacific sea surface temperature during the development of a warm event. Mon. Wea. Rev., 115, 370–379.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, G. M., and H. H. Hendon, 2007: Sensitivity of Australian rainfall to inter-El Niño variations. J. Climate, 20, 4211–4226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weng, H. Y., K. Ashok, S. K. Behera, S. A. Rao, and T. Yamagata, 2007: Impacts of recent El Niño Modoki on dry/wet conditions in the Pacific rim during boreal summer. Climate Dyn., 29, 113–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weng, H. Y., S. K. Behera, and T. Yamagata, 2009: Anomalous winter climate conditions in the Pacific rim during recent El Niño Modoki and El Niño events. Climate Dyn., 32, 663–674.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan, Y., and S. Yang, 2012: Impacts of different types of El Niño on the East Asian climate: Focus on ENSO cycles. J. Climate, 25, 7702–7722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan, Y., S. Yang, and Z. Q. Zhang, 2012a: Different evolutions of the Philippine Sea anticyclone between eastern and central Pacific El Niño: Effects of Indian Ocean SST. J. Climate, 25, 7867–7883.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan, Y., H. Yang, and C. Y. Li, 2012b: Study of El Niño events of different types and their potential impact on the following summer precipitation in China. Acta Meteorologica Sinica, 70, 467–478. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, T., and R. Yu, 2004: Sea-surface temperature induced variability of the southern annular mode in an atmospheric general circulation model. Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L24206, doi: 10.1029 /2004GL021473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Dan Sun  (孙 丹), Feng Xue  (薛 峰) & Tianjun Zhou  (周天军)

  2. Beijing Meteorological Bureau, Beijing, 100089, China

    Dan Sun  (孙 丹)

Authors
  1. Dan Sun  (孙 丹)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Feng Xue  (薛 峰)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tianjun Zhou  (周天军)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feng Xue  (薛 峰).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sun, D., Xue, F. & Zhou, T. Impacts of two types of El Niño on atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 30, 1732–1742 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-013-2287-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-013-2287-9

Key words

Search

Navigation