Interannual Climate Variations Over the Tropical Atlantic Ocean

Servain, Jacques; Merle, Jacques

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-76960-3_8

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…However, the Atlantic Niño is much weaker than its Pacific counterpart (Zebiak 1993;Carton and Huang 1994;Latif and Grötzner 2000;Servain et al 2003). A relationship between the Atlantic Niño and Pacific variability has also been suggested by some studies (Servain and Merle 1993;Carton and Huang 1994). The meridional mode is characterized by a north-south inter-hemispheric SST anomaly gradient that has no equivalent in the Pacific Ocean (Servain et al 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

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Sea surface temperature patterns in the Tropical Atlantic: Principal component analysis and nonlinear principal component analysis

Kenfack-Sadem¹,

Mkankam²,

Alory³

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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The tropical Atlantic Ocean exhibits several modes of interannual variability such as the equatorial (or Atlantic Niño) mode, and meridional (or Atlantic dipole) mode. Nonlinear principal component analysis (NLPCA) is applied on detrended monthly Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly (SSTA) data from the tropical Atlantic Ocean (30°W -20°E, 26°S -22°N) for the period 1950 to 2005. The objective is to compare the modes extracted through this statistical analysis to those previously extracted through simpler principal component analysis (PCA). It is shown that the first NLPCA mode explains 38% of the total SST variance compared to 36% by the first PCA while the second NLPCA mode explains 22% of the total SST variance compared to 16% by the second PCA. The first two NLPCA modes marginally explain more of the total data variance than the first two PCA modes. Our analysis confirms results from previous studies and, in addition, shows that the Atlantic El Niño structure is spatially more stable than the Atlantic dipole structure.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…However, while seasonal SST fluctuations are large, interannual variations in the Atlantic are modest in amplitude (Li and Philander 1997). Within the last decades, two primary modes of interannual variability have been identified in the tropical Atlantic (e.g., Servain and Merle 1993;Xie et al 1999): the equatorial and meridional modes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea surface temperature patterns in the Tropical Atlantic: Principal component analysis and nonlinear principal component analysis

Kenfack-Sadem¹,

Mkankam²,

Alory³

et al. 2017

Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci.

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“…Servain and Merle, 1993). The dominant frequency is the seasonal cycle, which is mainly related to the latitudinal displacement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the past decades, considerable effort has been made to identify preferred periodicities in the regional rainfall variability and the associated large-scale circulation. Several studies pointed out the decadal nature of the inter-hemispheric SST mode (Servain, 1991;Servain and Merle, 1993;Mehta and Delworth, 1995;Mehta, 1998;Nobre and Shukla, 1996;Tanimoto and Xie, 1999;Ayina and Servain, 2003). A marked preference for variability around 11-13 years has also been indicated by Wainer and Soares (1997), Hastenrath and Kaczmarczyk (1981) and Chu (1984).…”

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confidence: 99%

Is the decadal variability in the tropical Atlantic a precursor to the NAO?

Wainer

Servain

Clauzet³

2008

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. In the past two decades climate research in the tropical Atlantic with respect to the inter-hemispheric gradient of sea surface temperature (SST) emphasized the predominance of decadal-scale variability. Our results show that this mode of variability is prevalent only for part of the last 130-years record (the 1880s, the 1920s and, especially, the 1970s). There is a lag of a few months between the decadal variations of the inter-hemispheric gradient of SST and the decadal variability of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). This seems to indicate that the 10-year variability first develops in the tropics and then propagates polewards. The inter-hemispheric gradient of SST mode should be thought as episodic and not as a periodic oscillation.

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“…[2] Within the last decades, numerous studies of climate variability in the tropical Atlantic have identified two main modes at interannual time scales [e.g., Servain and Merle, 1993;Xie et al, 1999]. One mode of variability is similar to the Pacific El Niño -Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the sense that it relates the ocean's equatorial adjustment to changes in the trade winds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modes of tropical Atlantic climate variability observed by PIRATA

Servain¹,

Clauzet

Wainer

2003

Geophysical Research Letters

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The geography of the Pilot moored Research Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) was especially designed to observe the two main modes of climate variability in the tropical Atlantic: the equatorial mode (equivalent to the warm events in the Pacific Ocean), and the meridional mode, also known as the dipole mode. This paper is an attempt, using the first available PIRATA data, to evaluate the presence of the two modes, as well as their relationship with the current array configuration.

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Interannual Climate Variations Over the Tropical Atlantic Ocean

Cited by 15 publications

References 27 publications

Sea surface temperature patterns in the Tropical Atlantic: Principal component analysis and nonlinear principal component analysis

Sea surface temperature patterns in the Tropical Atlantic: Principal component analysis and nonlinear principal component analysis

Is the decadal variability in the tropical Atlantic a precursor to the NAO?

Modes of tropical Atlantic climate variability observed by PIRATA

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