On the Role of Equatorial Ocean Modes in the ENSO Cycle

Wakata, Yoshinobu; Sarachik, E. S.

doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1991)021<0434:otroeo>2.0.co;2

Cited by 28 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Black squares on the abscissas indicate longitudes where data were available at the start (top) and end (bottom) of the time series. ceived can consistently account for the onset of El Niiios (16)(17)(18)(19)(20). The 1997-98 El Niiio affords an opportunity to examine this theory in light of a very strong climate signal that is extraordinarily well defined by new data.…”

Section: Delayed Oscillator Theory and The 1997-98 El Niiiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Genesis and Evolution of the 1997-98 El Niño

McPhaden

1999

Science

1,173

720

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The 1997-98 El Nino was, by some measures, the strongest on record, with major climatic impacts felt around the world. A newly completed tropical Pacific atmosphere-ocean observing system documented this El Nino from its rapid onset to its sudden demise in greater detail than was ever before possible. The unprecedented measurements challenge existing theories about El Nino-related climate swings and suggest why climate forecast models underpredicted the strength of the El Nino before its onset.

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Section: Delayed Oscillator Theory and The 1997-98 El Niiiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Genesis and Evolution of the 1997-98 El Niño

McPhaden

1999

Science

1,173

720

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“…Therefore, if we project the wind and the oceanic response onto only a few grave equatorial oceanic modes in the long-wave approximation, we may underestimate a possible role of the off equatorial ocean-atmosphere process to the west of the date line (cf. Wakata and Sarachik, 1991;Kessler, 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interdecadal Natural Climate Variability in the Western Pacific and its Implication in Global Warming

Yamagata

Masumoto

1992

Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan

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Long-term hydrographic observations repeated by the Japan Meteorological Agency in the western Pacific have revealed not only the oceanic thermal variability associated with the ENSO events but also another interdecadal variability seemingly related to the global warming trend from the late 1970s. Since the background SST is high in the tropical western Pacific, even weak SST anomalies may affect strongly the atmospheric circulation including the Aleutian Low and the Asian winter monsoon. The extratropical atmospheric response to the interdecadal SST anomaly is global and looks quite different from that for the ENSO time scale. We note that the response is even reversed in the Asian monsoon region.To the west of the date line the ocean behaves like a dynamical slave to the winter Asian monsoon as demonstrated using the ocean general circulation model. In particular, the winter monsoon and related easterly wind variations are responsible for maturity or immaturity of the cold Mindanao Dome off the Phillipine coast. However, the active (inactive) summer monsoon followed by the anomalous easterlies (westerlies) intensified over the tropical western Pacific from summer through winter appears to be responsible for the positive (negative) SST anomalies in the same area at least for the ENSO time scale. This suggests that an interesting positive feedback mechanism responsible for natural climate variabilities ranging from several years to decades may exist in the coupled ocean-atmosphere-land system in the western tropical Pacific.

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“…He concluded that the variability in the thermo cline was consistent with that expected from the de layed oscillator theory. (Wakata and Sarachik [1991] reached the same conclusion by examining the response of a shallow water model to the observed (Florida State University) wind stress anomalies. )…”

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confidence: 66%

Understanding and predicting ENSO

Battisti¹,

Sarachik²

1995

Reviews of Geophysics

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Throughout the 1960's and 1970's, oceanographers referred to the large‐scale warming of the equatorial eastern and central Pacific as El Niño. This anomalous warming was later shown to be associated with anomalies in the upper ocean thermal structure throughout the equatorial Pacific Ocean. At about the same time, scientists realized that the Southern Oscillation was intimately related to the large‐scale changes in the tropical Pacific Ocean. In brief, the Southern Oscillation represents the variability in the Indo‐Pacific Walker circulation in the tropics, and is manifest as a displacement of the convection over the maritime continent, and is associated with large‐scale anomalies in the surface wind and sea level pressure throughout the tropical Pacific (and into the Indian Ocean) basin.

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On the Role of Equatorial Ocean Modes in the ENSO Cycle

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

Genesis and Evolution of the 1997-98 El Niño

Genesis and Evolution of the 1997-98 El Niño

Interdecadal Natural Climate Variability in the Western Pacific and its Implication in Global Warming

Understanding and predicting ENSO

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