Abstract
It is shown here that the teleconnections of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are contributed by two anomalous precipitation forcings in the equatorial central Pacific (CP; 160°E–120°W, 5°S–5°N) and western North Pacific (WNP; 110°E–150°E, 0°N–20°N). The positive CP precipitation anomalies induce a prevailing cyclonic flow over the North Pacific (120°E–110°W, 20°N–70°N), whereas the negative WNP precipitation forcing tends to induce anticyclonic anomalies over the Kuroshio extension region and North Pacific. It is demonstrated that the equatorial CP and WNP precipitation anomalies play relative roles in generating atmospheric teleconnections over the North Pacific, which can be determined by the competing responses to the CP and WNP precipitation anomalies. The reconstructed teleconnection patterns based on only the two tropical forcings capture the majority of the subseasonal evolution of the ENSO teleconnection. In addition, we find that the diversity of inter-ENSO events in the atmospheric teleconnection can be better-explained by considering the relative roles of the CP and WNP precipitation anomalies.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program under Grant KMIPA 2015-2092 and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2017R1A2B3011511). SK is supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) through “Human Resources Program in Energy Technology” (No. 20144030200460) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Republic of Korea.
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This paper is a contribution to the special issue on East Asian Climate under Global Warming: Understanding and Projection, consisting of papers from the East Asian Climate (EAC) community and the 13th EAC International Workshop in Beijing, China on 24–25 March 2016, and coordinated by Jianping Li, Huang-Hsiung Hsu, Wei-Chyung Wang, Kyung-Ja Ha, Tim Li, and Akio Kitoh.
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Kim, S., Son, HY. & Kug, JS. Relative roles of equatorial central Pacific and western North Pacific precipitation anomalies in ENSO teleconnection over the North Pacific. Clim Dyn 51, 4345–4355 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3779-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3779-6