The Southern Oscillation Revisited: Sea Level Pressures, Surface Temperatures, and Precipitation

Trenberth, Kevin E.; Caron, Julie M.

doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2000)013<4358:tsorsl>2.0.co;2

Cited by 378 publications

(278 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The response of trees and lakes to climatological patterns can also be evidenced by its association with ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) (Trenberth, 1997), one of the most important drivers of interannual variability in the world (Trenberth and Caron, 2000;Li et al, 2011). Consistent with Christie et al (2009), our results showed an increase in tree radial growth during the ENSO events (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Lake Fluctuations, Plant Productivity, and Long-Term Variability in High-Elevation Tropical Andean Ecosystems

Carilla

Grau

Paolini

et al. 2013

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Lake Fluctuations, Plant Productivity, and Long-Term Variability in High-Elevation Tropical Andean Ecosystems

Carilla

Grau

Paolini

et al. 2013

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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“…The SST spatial patterns show symmetric features about the equator, as shown by numerous studies (e.g. Trenberth and Caron, 2000). Several asymmetric features also exist: the Pacific mid-latitude signals having a negative sign extended further north and south in the winter hemisphere than those in the summer hemisphere.…”

Section: Dominant Variation Modes In the Global Sst Fieldsupporting

confidence: 66%

Regime shift in the global sea‐surface temperatures: its relation to El Niño–southern oscillation events and dominant variation modes

Yasunaka

Hanawa

2005

Intl Journal of Climatology

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Significant changes of mean state appearing widely in the global sea-surface temperature (SST) anomaly field have happened five times from the 1910s to the 1990s : 1925, 1942, 1957, 1970 and 1976. Since the regions of change spread over both hemispheres and/or multiple oceanic basins, they can be considered as 'global regime shifts'. The years of regime shifts are consistent with those of the Northern Hemisphere regime shifts reported by previous studies.It is also shown that the regime shifts have happened concurrently with El Niño-southern oscillation (ENSO) events, which seems to suggest that the ENSO event acts as a trigger of the regime shift. At the regime shift, the tropical Pacific SSTs change from La Niña (El Niño) to El Niño (La Niña) conditions within 1 year. Further, the ENSO events occur just after the regime shifts begin in the July to September (JAS) season and reach the mature phase in the January to March (JFM) season as a typical evolution of the ENSO events. After that, they continue to at least the next year.The five regime shifts detected have similar features in their seasonal evolution and persistence of signals. First, the shifts start in the JAS season: an SST change occurs in the eastern and central tropical Pacific, and a change in the mid-latitudes of the North and South Pacific appears with the opposite sign. Then the shifts in the JFM season. The spatial patterns are similar to those of the JAS season, but signals in the North Pacific become remarkable. These features resemble those corresponding to a series of evolutions of ENSO events, but the signals in the North Pacific and the North Atlantic are much stronger than those of the typical ENSO events. After the shifts have happened, the changes in spatial patterns of SST that occurred at the regime shift persist until the next shift. The persistence of signals is more prominent in the JFM season than in the JAS season.From a review of the dominant variation modes in global SSTs using empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses, four modes are identified: the ENSO mode, the Southern Hemisphere trend mode, the North Pacific (NP) mode, and the Arctic oscillation (AO) mode. In the years when regime shifts occur, the ENSO mode, the NP mode, and the AO mode show significant concurrent phase reversals on the global scale as previously shown in the Northern Hemisphere. These findings provide a possible reason why SST changes in the regime shift are similar but not exactly the same pattern as that of ENSO. Furthermore, it can be considered that a simultaneous phase reversal of the NP mode would suppress the growth of anticyclonic (or cyclonic) circulation in the atmosphere over the western tropical Pacific. This suggests that an ENSO event, which begins with a regime shift, would not reverse its condition and last for the following several seasons.

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“…Furthermore, a number of studies have examined issues associated with the quality of the station data and the properties of the SOI (Allan et al, 1996;Trenberth and Caron, 2000). For example, Troup (1965) noted that the centres of action involved in the Southern Oscillation (Fairbanks et al, 1997).…”

Section: Rationalementioning

confidence: 99%

Classification of synchronous oceanic and atmospheric El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events for palaeoclimate reconstruction

Gergis

Fowler

2005

Int. J. Climatol.

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Since the mid-1970s, ENSO has changed in character to a predominance of El Niño conditions, the extreme phase of which appears coincidental with increases in global temperature records. Instrumental time series (<150 years) are too short to adequately address the significance of late twentieth-century ENSO variability, thus, multi-century palaeoclimate reconstructions derived from long proxy records are sought. Despite the global influence exerted by ENSO on society, limited consensus exists within the scientific community as to which index best defines the timing, duration and strength of events. Here we address issues associated with the complexity of ENSO characterisation by comparing the 'event capture' ability of two currently used indices of ENSO. It is suggested that the use of a sole ENSO index is undesirable as a given index is only indicative of one physical aspect of the phenomenon, and as such is unlikely to be representative of the wider interactions experienced in the coupled ocean-atmospheric system. In an attempt to describe more of the nature and evolution of ENSO events, the Coupled ENSO Index (CEI) classification scheme was devised to identify synchronous oceanic (Niño 3.4 SST) and atmospheric (Southern Oscillation Index) anomalies associated with ENSO for the instrumental period . The CEI is of practical relevance to the ENSO community as it provides an amplitude preserving instrumental baseline for the calibration of proxy records to reconstruct both components of the ENSO system. Analysis of the nature of instrumental ENSO events from the CEI suggests that the frequency and intensity of post-1970 ENSO events (when 50% of all extreme events identified occur) appears the most anomalous in the context of at least the past century. It is hoped that the CEI will facilitate palaeo-ENSO research to systematically resolve the long-term context of past ENSO behaviour to assess whether the apparently anomalous nature of late twentieth-century variability is unprecedented within existing palaeoclimate archives.

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The Southern Oscillation Revisited: Sea Level Pressures, Surface Temperatures, and Precipitation

Cited by 378 publications

References 25 publications

Lake Fluctuations, Plant Productivity, and Long-Term Variability in High-Elevation Tropical Andean Ecosystems

Lake Fluctuations, Plant Productivity, and Long-Term Variability in High-Elevation Tropical Andean Ecosystems

Regime shift in the global sea‐surface temperatures: its relation to El Niño–southern oscillation events and dominant variation modes

Classification of synchronous oceanic and atmospheric El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events for palaeoclimate reconstruction

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