The Atlantic zonal mode: Dynamics, thermodynamics, and teleconnections

Richter, Ingo; Tokinaga, Hiroki

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-818156-0.00008-3

Cited by 10 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 127 publications

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“…Climate conditions in the tropical Atlantic Ocean exhibit prominent year-to-year fluctuations, and its dominant mode is known as the Atlantic Niño or Niña, analogous to the Pacific El Niño and La Niña, the warm and cold phases of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (1,2). The Atlantic Niño is characterized by warm sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies (SSTAs) in the central and eastern equatorial Atlantic Ocean, weakened easterly trade winds, and higher-than-normal rainfall in the tropical Atlantic (3)(4)(5)(6)(7). The Atlantic Niña typically exhibits opposite anomalous signals (8).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergence of the Central Atlantic Niño

Zhang,

Wang,

Han

et al. 2023

Sci. Adv.

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The Atlantic Niño is characterized by sea surface warming in the equatorial Atlantic, which can trigger La Niña, the cold phase of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Although observations show that the Atlantic Niño has weakened by approximately 30% since the 1970s, its remote influence on ENSO remains strong. Here, we show that this apparent discrepancy is due to the existence of two types of Atlantic Niño with distinct patterns and climatic impacts, which we refer to as the central and eastern Atlantic Niño. Our results show that with equal strength, the central Atlantic Niño has a stronger influence on tropical climate than its eastern counterpart. Meanwhile, the eastern Atlantic Niño has weakened by approximately 50% in recent decades, allowing the central Atlantic Niño to emerge and dominate the remote impact on ENSO. Given the distinct climatic impacts of the two types, it is necessary to distinguish between them and investigate their behaviors and influences on climate in future studies.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergence of the Central Atlantic Niño

Zhang,

Wang,

Han

et al. 2023

Sci. Adv.

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“…The Atlantic Niño is associated with prominent climate anomalies across the tropical Atlantic and has far-reaching impacts on climate in remote regions [3][4][5][6] . For instance, the Atlantic Niño enhances seasonal rainfall over South America and Africa 7,8 ; it can also affect the African Easterly Jet 9 , which can subsequently influence Atlantic hurricanes 10,11 .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…A recent observational study, however, shows that many Atlantic Niño events occur without being preconditioned by the AMM 21 . While the development of Atlantic Niño is typically associated with weakened Atlantic trade winds 5,6 , it remains unclear what may have caused the wind anomalies.…”

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confidence: 99%

Indian Ocean Dipole leads to Atlantic Niño

Zhang

Han

2021

Nat Commun

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Atlantic Niño is the Atlantic equivalent of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and it has prominent impacts on regional and global climate. Existing studies suggest that the Atlantic Niño may arise from local atmosphere-ocean interaction and is sometimes triggered by the Atlantic Meridional Mode (AMM), with overall weak ENSO contribution. By analyzing observational datasets and performing numerical model experiments, here we show that the Atlantic Niño can be induced by the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). We find that the enhanced rainfall in the western tropical Indian Ocean during positive IOD weakens the easterly trade winds over the tropical Atlantic, causing warm anomalies in the central and eastern equatorial Atlantic basin and therefore triggering the Atlantic Niño. Our finding suggests that the cross-basin impact from the tropical Indian Ocean plays a more important role in affecting interannual climate variability than previously thought.

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“…Climate models project a weaker, narrower ITCZ due to anthropogenic warming (Byrne and Schneider, 2016b,a), adding to the impact of interannual climate modes over the rainfall regime of the tropical Atlantic (Lübbecke et al, 2018;Richter and Tokinaga, 2021). Increasing CO 2 outgassing caused by rising SST in the tropical Atlantic (Servain et al, 2014;Ibánhez et al, 2017;Lefèvre et al, 2019), would act together with the projected changes in the Atlantic ITCZ to further reduce the overall oceanic mitigation of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere.…”

Section: Enhanced Co 2 Drawdown In the Tropical Atlantic Affected By ...mentioning

confidence: 99%