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A strengthened impact of November Arctic oscillation on subsequent tropical Pacific sea surface temperature variation since the late-1970s

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Abstract

The connection between November Arctic Oscillation (AO) and the following spring-summer tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) experienced a pronounced enhancement around the late-1970s. The connection was weak before, but strong after the late-1970s. The present study investigates the plausible reasons for the connection change. After the late-1970s, significant anomalous cyclone appears over subtropical North Pacific and pronounced anomalous westerly winds occur over tropical western Pacific in the positive phase of November AO. As such, November AO could exert a significant influence on the subsequent spring-summer tropical Pacific SST variation. By contrast, before the late-1970s, anomalous cyclone and associated anomalous westerly winds to its south are weak and shift northward. Thereby, the connection between November AO and tropical Pacific SST is weak. Further analyses suggest that the interdecadal change in the anomalous cyclone over the subtropical North Pacific may be related to the change in the November AO’s Pacific component and the strength of feedback of synoptic-scale eddy to mean flow. Specifically, after the late-1970s, November AO’s Pacific component displays a zonally elongated structure, which is favorable for the formation of easterly wind anomalies over the mid-latitude North Pacific and related wave-mean flow interaction. In addition, feedback of synoptic eddy to mean flow is enhanced after the late-1970s, which is partly related to the intensification of the North Pacific storm track. This may also contribute to enhancement of the anomalous cyclone over the subtropical Pacific.

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Acknowledgements

We thank three anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions and comments, which helped to improve the paper. We also thank Prof. B. Yu for helpful discussions. Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China grants (41605050, 41530425, 41475081, and 41661144016), the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by CAST, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2017T100102), the National Key Research and Development Program of China grant (2016YFA0600603), the National Key Basic Research Program of China grant (2014CB953902). The NCEP-NCAR Reanalysis data were derived from ftp://ftp.cdc.noaa.gov/Datasets/ncep.reanalysis.derived/. The HadISLP2r SLP data were obtained from http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadslp2. The ERA-20C SLP data were obtained from https://www.ecmwf.int/. The ERSSTv3b SST data were obtained from http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/. The AO index was derived from http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov.

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  1. Center for Monsoon System Research, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Shangfeng Chen, Renguang Wu & Wen Chen

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

    Renguang Wu & Wen Chen

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Chen, S., Wu, R. & Chen, W. A strengthened impact of November Arctic oscillation on subsequent tropical Pacific sea surface temperature variation since the late-1970s. Clim Dyn 51, 511–529 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3937-x

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