Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

How sensitive are the Pacific–tropical North Atlantic teleconnections to the position and intensity of El Niño-related warming?

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The atmospheric teleconnections associated with the Eastern Pacific El Niño and El Niño Modoki events onto the tropical Atlantic Ocean are investigated. The Eastern Pacific El Niños drive significant warming of the tropical North Atlantic basin during boreal spring after its peak via the atmospheric bridge and tropospheric temperature mechanisms. However, the tropical Atlantic does not show a robust response to El Niño Modoki events. Here our results suggest that the preconditioning of the tropical North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in boreal winter plays an important role in the following season, not only during Eastern Pacific El Niños but also during El Niño Modoki events. Additionally, we examine three other factors that could explain potential differences in the tropical Atlantic teleconnections from El Niño Modoki and Eastern Pacific El Niño events: (1) The distant location of the maximum SST warming in the Pacific; (2) The weak warming associated with this pattern; and (3) The SST pattern including a cooling in the eastern Pacific. Using numerical experiments forced with idealised SST in the equatorial Pacific, we show that the location of the El Niño Modoki SST warming during its mature phase could be favourable for exciting atmospheric teleconnections in boreal winter but not in the following spring season due to the seasonal shift of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone that modulates deep convection over the anomalous SST. This demonstrates the importance of the mean seasonal atmospheric circulation in modulating the remote teleconnections from the central-western Pacific warming in the model. However, it is suggested here that the cooling in the eastern Pacific associated with El Niño Modoki counteracts the atmospheric response driven by the central western Pacific warming, generating a consequent weaker connection to the tropical Atlantic compared to the stronger link during Eastern Pacific El Niño events. Finally we show that the modeled Pacific–tropical Atlantic teleconnections to an eastern Pacific warming depends strongly on the underlying seasonal cycle of SST.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

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
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adler RF, Huffman GJ, Chang A, Ferraro R, Xie P, Janowiak J, Rudolf B, Schneider U, Curtis S, Bolvin D, Gruber A, Susskind J, Arkin P (2003) The version 2 global precipitation climatology project (GPCP) monthly precipitation analysis (1979-present). J Hydrometeorol 4:1147–1167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alexander MA, Bladé I, Newman M, Lanzante JR, Lau N-C, Scott JD (2002) The atmospheric bridge: the influence of ENSO teleconnections on air-sea interaction over the global oceans. J Clim 15(16):2205–2231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amaya DJ, Foltz GR (2014) Impacts of canonical and Modoki El Niño on tropical Atlantic SST. J Geophys Res. doi:10.1002/2013JC009476

    Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashok K, Iizuka S, Rao SA, Saji NH, Lee W-J (2009) Processes and boreal summer impacts of the 2004 El Niño Modoki: an AGCM study. Geophys Res Lett 36:L04703

    Google Scholar 

  • Banholzer S, Donner S (2014) The influence of different El Niño types on global average temperature. Geophys Res Lett 41(6):2093–2099. doi:10.1002/2014GL059520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Branstator G (1983) Horizontal energy propagation in a barotropic atmosphere with meridional and zonal structure. J Atmos Sci 40:1689–1708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chambers DP, Tapley BD, Stewart RH (1999) Anomalous warming in the Indian Ocean coincident with El Niño. J Geophys Res 104:3035–3047

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang P, Fang Y, Saravanan R, Ji L, Seidel H (2006) The cause of the fragile relationship between the Pacific El Niño and the Atlantic Niño. Nature 443:324–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiang JCH, Lintner BR (2005) Mechanisms of remote tropical surface warming during El Niño. J Clim 18:4130–4149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiang JCH, Sobel AH (2002) Tropical tropospheric temperature variations caused by ENSO and their influence on the remote tropical climate. J Clim 15:2616–2631

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiang JCH, Kushnir Y, Giannini A (2002) Deconstructing Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone variability: influence of the local cross-equatorial sea surface temperature gradient and remote forcing from the eastern equatorial Pacific. J Geophys Res 107:4004. doi:10.1029/2000JD000307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coats S, Smerdon JE, Cook BI, Seager R (2013) Stationarity of the tropical Pacific teleconnection to North America in CMIP5/PMIP3 model simulations. Geophys Res Lett 40(18):4927–4932. doi:10.1002/grl.50938

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins WD, Rasch PJ, Boville BA, Hack JJ, Mccaa JR, Williamson DL, Briegleb BP, Bitz CM, Lin S-J, Zhang M (2006) The formulation and atmospheric simulation of the community atmosphere model version 3 (CAM3). J Clim 19(11):2144–2161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curtis S, Hastenrath S (1995) Forcing of anomalous sea surface temperature evolution in the tropical Atlantic during Pacific warm events. J Geophys Res 100C:15835–15847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enfield DB, Mayer DA (1997) Tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature variability and its relation to El Niño-Southern Oscillation. J Geophys Res 102:929–945

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frauen C, Dommenget D, Tyrrell N, Rezny M (2014) Analysis of the non-linearity of El Niño southern oscillation teleconnections. J Clim. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00757.1

    Google Scholar 

  • Giannini A, Saravanan R, Chang P (2004) The preconditioning role of tropical atlantic variability in the development of the ENSO teleconnection: implications for the prediction of Nordeste rainfall. Clim Dyn 22:839–855

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham NE, Barnett TP (1987) Sea surface temperature, surface wind divergence, and convection over tropical oceans. Science 238(4827):657–659. doi:10.1038/ngeo1008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison DE, Vecchi GA (1999) On the termination of El Niño. Geophys Res Lett 26(11):1593–1596. doi:10.1029/1999GL900316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hastenrath S (2000) Interannual and longer-term variability of upper-air circulation in the Northeast Brazil–tropical Atlantic sector. J Geophys Res Atmos 105(D6):7322–7335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hastenrath S (2006) Circulation and teleconnection mechanisms of Northeast Brazil droughts. Prog Oceanogr 70:407–415

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hastenrath S, Heller L (1977) Dynamics of climatic hazards in northeast Brazil. Q J Roy Meteorol Soc 103:77–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill KJ, Taschetto AS, England MH (2009) South American rainfall impacts associated with inter-El Niño variations. Geophys Res Lett 36:L19702. doi:10.1029/2009GL040164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill KJ, Taschetto AS, England MH (2011) Sensitivity of South American summer rainfall to tropical Pacific Ocean SST anomalies. Geophys Res Lett 38(1):L01701. doi:10.1029/2010GL045571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoerling MP, Kumar A (2002) Atmospheric response patterns associated with tropical forcing. J Clim 15(16):2184–2203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoerling MP, Kumar A, Zhong M (1997) El Niño, La Niña, and the nonlinearity of their teleconnections. J Clim 10(8):1769–1786

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoskins BJ, Ambrizzi T (1993) Rossby wave propagation on a realistic longitudinally varying flow. J Atmos Sci 50(12):1661–1671

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang B (2004) Remotely forced variability in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Clim Dyn 23(2):133–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang B, Schopf PS, Pan Z (2002) The ENSO effect on the tropical Atlantic variability: a regionally coupled model study. Geophys Res Lett 29(21):2039. doi:10.1029/2002GL014872

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janicot S, Harzallah A, Fontaine B, Moron V (1998) West African monsoon dynamics and eastern equatorial Atlantic and Pacific SST anomalies (1970–1988). J Clim 11:874–1882

    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 

  • Karnauskas KB (2013) Can we distinguish canonical El Niño from Modoki? Geophys Res Lett 40(19):5246–5251. doi:10.1002/grl.51007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karoly DJ (1983) Rossby wave propagation in a barotropic atmosphere. Dyn Atmos Oceans 7(2):111–125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiladis GN, Storch HV, van Loon H (1989) Origin of the South Pacific convergence zone. J Clim 2(10):1185–1195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein SA, Soden B, Lau N-C (1999) Remote sea surface temperature variations during ENSO: evidence for a tropical atmospheric bridge. J Clim 12:917–932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar A, Hoerling MP (2003) The nature and causes for the delayed atmospheric response to El Niño. J Clim 16(9):1391–1403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larkin NK (2005) On the definition of El Niño and associated seasonal average U.S. weather anomalies. Geophys Res Lett 32(13):L13705. doi:10.1029/2005GL022738

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lau NC, Nath MJ (1996) The role of the “atmospheric bridge” in linking tropical Pacific ENSO events to extratropical SST anomalies. J Clim 9:2036–2057

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee T, McPhaden MJ (2010) Increasing intensity of El Niño in the central-equatorial Pacific. Geophys Res Lett 37:L14603. doi:10.1029/2010GL044007

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee S-K, Enfield DB, Wang C (2008) Why do some El Niños have no impact on tropical North Atlantic SST? Geophys Res Lett 35:L16705. doi:10.1029/2008GL034734

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luebbecke J, McPhaden MJ (2012) On the inconsistent relationship between Pacific and Atlantic Niños. J Clim 25:4294–4303

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer M, Trenberth KE, Haimberger L, Fasullo JT (2013) The response of tropical atmospheric energy budgets to ENSO. J Clim 26(13):4710–4724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGregor S, Timmermann A, Schneider N, Stuecker M, England MH (2012) The effect of the South Pacific convergence zone on the termination of El Niño events and the meridional asymmetry of ENSO. J Clim 25:5566–5586

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGregor S, Ramesh N, Spence P, England MH, McPhaden MJ, Santoso A (2013) Meridional movement of wind anomalies during ENSO events and their role in event termination. Geophys Res Lett 40(4):749–754

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhaden MJ, Lee T, McClurg D (2011) El Niño and its relationship to changing background conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Geophys Res Lett 38:L15709. doi:10.1029/2011GL048275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moura AD, Shukla J (1981) On the dynamics of droughts in northeast Brazil—observations, theory and numerical experiments with a general-circulation model. J Atmos Sci 38:2653–2675

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholson S (2009) A revised picture of the structure of the “monsoon” and land ITCZ over West Africa. Clim Dyn 32(7):1155–1171. doi:10.1007/s00382-008-0514-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nobre P, Shukla J (1996) Variations of sea surface temperature, wind stress, and rainfall over the tropical Atlantic and South America. J Clim 9:2464–2479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pezzi LP, Cavalcanti IFA (2001) The relative importance of ENSO and tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies for seasonal precipitation over South America: a numerical study. Clim Dyn 17:205–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rayner NA, Parker DE, Horton EB, Folland CK, Alexander LV, Rowell DP, Kent EC, Kaplan A (2003) Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century. J Geophys Res 108(D14):4407. doi:10.1029/2002JD002670

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richter I, Xie S-P (2008) On the origin of equatorial Atlantic biases in coupled general circulation models. Clim Dyn 31(5):587–598. doi:10.1007/s00382-008-0364-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richter I, Xie S-P, Behera SK, Doi T, Masumoto Y (2014) Equatorial Atlantic variability and its relation to mean state biases in CMIP5. Clim Dyn 42(1-2):171–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robson J, Sutton R, Lohmann K, Smith D, Palmer MD (2012) Causes of the rapid warming of the North Atlantic Ocean in the mid-1990s. J Clim 25(12):4116–4134. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00443.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodrigues RR, McPhaden MJ (2014) Why did the 2011–2012 La Niña cause a severe drought in the Brazilian Northeast? Geophys Res Lett 41:1012–1018. doi:10.1002/2013GL058703

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodrigues RR, Haarsma RJ, Campos EJD, Ambrizzi T (2011) The impacts of inter-El Niño variability on the tropical Atlantic and northeast Brazil climate. J Clim 24:3402–3422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowell DP, Folland CK, Maskel K, Owen JA, Ward MN (1995) Variability of the summer rainfall over tropical North Africa (1906–92): observations and modeling. Q J R Meteorol Soc 121:669–704

    Google Scholar 

  • Saravanan R, Chang P (2000) Interactions between tropical Atlantic variability and El Niño-Southern Oscillation. J Clim 13:2177–2194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sasaki W, Doi T, Richards KJ, Masumoto Y (2014) The influence of ENSO on the equatorial Atlantic precipitation through the Walker circulation in a CGCM. Clim Dyn. doi:10.1007/s00382-014-2133-5

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider U, Becker A, Finger P, Meyer-Christoffer A, Ziese M, Rudolf B (2013) GPCC’s new land surface precipitation climatology based on quality-controlled in situ data and its role in quantifying the global water cycle. Theor App Climatol 115(1–2):15–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Servain J (1991) Simple climatic indices for the tropical Atlantic Ocean and some applications. J Geophys Res 96:15137–15146

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith TM, Reynolds RW, Peterson TC (2008) Improvements to NOAA’s historical merged land-ocean surface temperature analysis (1880-2006). J Clim 21(10):2283–2296

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spencer H (2004) Role of the atmosphere in seasonal phase locking of El Niño. Geophys Res Lett 31(24):L24104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taschetto AS, England MH (2009) El Niño Modoki Impacts on Australian Rainfall. J Clim 22(11):3167–3174. doi:10.1175/2008JCLI2589.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taschetto AS, Haarsma RJ, Sen Gupta A, Ummenhofer CC, Hill KJ, England MH (2010) Australian monsoon variability driven by a Gill–Matsuno-type response to central west Pacific warming. J Clim 23(18):4717–4736. doi:10.1175/2010JCLI3474.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taschetto AS, Sen Gupta A, Jourdain NC, Santoso A, Ummenhofer CC, England MH (2014) Cold tongue and warm pool ENSO events in CMIP5: mean state and future projections. J Clim 27(8):2861–2885. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00437.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tedeschi RG, Cavalcanti IFA, Grimm AM (2013) Influences of two types of ENSO on South American precipitation. Int J Climatol 33:1382–1400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trenberth K (1997) The definition of El Niño. Bull Am Meteor Soc 78:2771–2777

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace JM, Gutzler DS (1981) Teleconnections in the geopotential height field during the Northern Hemisphere winter. Mon Weather Rev 109(4):784–812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang G, Hendon H (2007) Sensitivity of Australian rainfall to inter–El Niño variations. J Clim 20:4211–4226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ward MN (1998) Diagnosis and short-lead time prediction of summer rainfall in tropical North Africa at interannual and multidecadal timescales. J Clim 11:3167–3191

    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(2–3):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(5):663–674. doi:10.1007/s00382-008-0394-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xie P, Arkin PA (1997) Global precipitation: a 17-year monthly analysis based on gauge observations, satellite estimates, and numerical model outputs. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 78(11):2539–2558

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yulaeva E, Wallace JM (1994) The signature of ENSO in global temperature and precipitation fields derived from the microwave sounding unit. J Clim 7:1719–1736

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang C (1993) Large-scale variability of atmospheric deep convection in relation to sea surface temperature in the tropics. J Clim 6(10):1898–1913

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zou Y, Yu JY, Lee T, Lu MM (2014) CMIP5 model simulations of the impacts of the two types of El Niño on the US winter temperature. J Geophys Res Atmos. doi:10.1002/(ISSN)2169-8996

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) including the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (ARCCSS). This work is also part of the research conducted by the INCT-MC, INCT-Mar COI, and Rede CLIMA. The numerical experiments were undertaken on the NCI National Facility at the ANU, Australia, via the provision of computing resources. Use of NCAR’s CCSM3 model is gratefully acknowledged. We thank all the Institutions responsible for the observations and reanalysis products for having made their data available. Observational and reanalysis data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, is from their web site at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/. We thank Kris Karnauskas and one anonymous reviewer for their comments on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Climate Change Research Centre, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    A. S. Taschetto, S. McGregor & M. H. England

  2. Department of Geosciences, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil

    R. R. Rodrigues

  3. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA

    G. A. Meehl

Authors
  1. A. S. Taschetto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. R. Rodrigues
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. G. A. Meehl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. S. McGregor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M. H. England
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. S. Taschetto.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Taschetto, A.S., Rodrigues, R.R., Meehl, G.A. et al. How sensitive are the Pacific–tropical North Atlantic teleconnections to the position and intensity of El Niño-related warming?. Clim Dyn 46, 1841–1860 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2679-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2679-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation