Phase‐locked tropical Pacific precipitation

Abstract

Prior studies of the El Niño/La Niña index SST3.4 showed periodicity of exactly 2 or 3 years which were 'phase-locked' to the annual solar cycle. Ten such phase-locked intervals since 1870 were found. This article extends this work by studying precipitation data (P34) for the same region. We find phase-locked segments corresponding to those found in SST3.4. Each segment agrees both in the period of oscillation and the date interval. However, the temperature-precipitation relationship changes from segment to segment, demonstrating the non-stationarity of the system. The beginnings and ends of these time segments agree with previously reported abrupt climate shifts.

Study on the Relationship between the Oceanic Nino Index and Surface Air Temperature and Precipitation Rate over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…The ENSO phenomenon is the combination of SOI and El Nino. It is controlling the global atmospheric surface temperature and precipitation [10]- [21] and more recently by Curtis and Douglass [22]. El Nino events are a prominent feature of weather and climate variability with global climatic impacts.…”