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Subtropical air-sea interaction and development of central Pacific El Niño

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Abstract

The standard deviation of the central Pacific sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) during the period from October to February shows that the central Pacific SSTA variation is primarily due to the occurrence of the Central Pacific El Niño (CP-El Niño) and has a connection with the subtropical air-sea interaction in the northeastern Pacific. After removing the influence of the Eastern Pacific El Niño, an S-EOF analysis is conducted and the leading mode shows a clear seasonal SSTA evolving from the subtropical northeastern Pacific to the tropical central Pacific with a quasi-biennial period. The initial subtropical SSTA is generated by the wind speed decrease and surface heat flux increase due to a north Pacific anomalous cyclone. Such subtropical SSTA can further influence the establishment of the SSTA in the tropical central Pacific via the wind-evaporation-SST (WES) feedback. After established, the central equatorial Pacific SSTA can be strengthened by the zonal advective feedback and thermocline feedback, and develop into CP-El Niño. However, as the thermocline feedback increases the SSTA cooling after the mature phase, the heat flux loss and the reversed zonal advective feedback can cause the phase transition of CP-El Niño. Along with the wind stress variability, the recharge (discharge) process occurs in the central (eastern) equatorial Pacific and such a process causes the phase consistency between the thermocline depth and SST anomalies, which presents a contrast to the original recharge/discharge theory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Marine Meteorology, Physical Oceanography Laboratory and Key Laboratory of Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction and Climate in Universities of Shandong, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, P. R. China

    Ruihuang Xie & Fei Huang

  2. Department of Meteorology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, Hawaii, HI, 96822, USA

    Ruihuang Xie & Hongli Ren

  3. Laboratory for Climate Studies, National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, P. R. China

    Hongli Ren

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  1. Ruihuang Xie
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  2. Fei Huang
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Correspondence to Fei Huang.

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Xie, R., Huang, F. & Ren, H. Subtropical air-sea interaction and development of central Pacific El Niño. J. Ocean Univ. China 12, 260–271 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-013-2143-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-013-2143-7

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