Subsurface Nonlinear Dynamical Heating and ENSO Asymmetry

Hayashi, Michiya; Jin, Fei‐Fei

doi:10.1002/2017GL075771

Title: Subsurface Nonlinear Dynamical Heating and ENSO Asymmetry

Journal Article · Sun Dec 17 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075771· OSTI ID:1413794

^[1];

^[1]

Department of Atmospheric Sciences, SOEST University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Honolulu HI USA

Abstract This study presents evidence of interannual to interdecadal variabilities residing in the subsurface nonlinear dynamical heating (NDH) along the equatorial Pacific thermocline based on ocean reanalysis products. In association with a flattened thermocline and drastic halt of the Equatorial Undercurrent, the NDH increases sharply right after a peak of the strong El Niño, reducing the linear anomalous advective subsurface cooling by 30%. As the result, subsurface cold signals in the west are significantly weakened as it reaches the easternmost Pacific, causing less surface cooling in the east and thus weakening the subsequent La Niña. Therefore, the subsurface NDH contributes to asymmetry in both the magnitude and structure between El Niño and La Niña. The acute positive subsurface NDH associated with strong El Niño events leads to substantial variations in its decadal means and serves as a potential source for tropical Pacific decadal to interdecadal variabilities.

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: DESC005110

OSTI ID:: 1413794

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Vol. 44 Journal Issue: 24; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 18 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (44)

A review of interdecadal changes in the nonlinearity of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation An, Soon-Il Theoretical and Applied Climatology, Vol. 97, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-008-0071-z	journal	October 2008
Two Types of El Niño Events: Cold Tongue El Niño and Warm Pool El Niño Kug, Jong-Seong; Jin, Fei-Fei; An, Soon-Il Journal of Climate, Vol. 22, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI2624.1	journal	March 2009
Role of nonlinear ocean dynamic response to wind on the asymmetrical transition of El Niño and La Niña: Asymmetrical Transition of ENSO An, Soon-Il; Kim, Ji-Won Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 44, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071971	journal	January 2017
Natural variation in ENSO flavors: NATURAL VARIATION IN ENSO FLAVORS Newman, Matthew; Shin, Sang-Ik; Alexander, Michael A. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL047658	journal	July 2011
Are historical records sufficient to constrain ENSO simulations? Wittenberg, Andrew T. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 36, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL038710	journal	January 2009
Interannual Variations of the Tropical Ocean Instability Wave and ENSO An, Soon-Il Journal of Climate, Vol. 21, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI1701.1	journal	August 2008
A Tripole Index for the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation Henley, Benjamin J.; Gergis, Joelle; Karoly, David J. Climate Dynamics, Vol. 45, Issue 11-12 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2525-1	journal	March 2015
A regulatory effect of ENSO on the time-mean thermal stratification of the equatorial upper ocean Sun, De-Zheng; Zhang, Tao Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 33, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL025296	journal	January 2006
A Stability Analysis of Tropical Ocean–Atmosphere Interactions: Bridging Measurements and Theory for El Niño Fedorov, Alexey V.; Philander, S. George Journal of Climate, Vol. 14, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2001)014<3086:ASAOTO>2.0.CO;2	journal	July 2001
Global seasonal temperature and precipitation anomalies during El Niño autumn and winter Larkin, Narasimhan K. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 32, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL022860	journal	January 2005
Interdecadal changes in the El Nino-La Nina asymmetry: INTERDECADAL CHANGES IN ENSO ASYMMETRY An, Soon-Il Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 31, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL021699	journal	December 2004
Upper-ocean dynamical features and prediction of the super El Niño in 2015/16: A comparison with the cases in 1982/83 and 1997/98 Ren, Hong-Li; Wang, Run; Zhai, Panmao Journal of Meteorological Research, Vol. 31, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-017-6194-3	journal	April 2017
A Nonlinear Mechanism for Decadal El NiñO Amplitude Changes Timmermann, Axel Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 29, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2001GL013369	journal	January 2002
Analysis of the non-linearity in the pattern and time evolution of El Niño southern oscillation Dommenget, Dietmar; Bayr, Tobias; Frauen, Claudia Climate Dynamics, Vol. 40, Issue 11-12 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-012-1475-0	journal	August 2012
ENSO Complexity Induced by State Dependence of Westerly Wind Events Hayashi, Michiya; Watanabe, Masahiro Journal of Climate, Vol. 30, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0406.1	journal	May 2017
A Simple Mechanism for ENSO Residuals and Asymmetry Schopf, Paul S.; Burgman, Robert J. Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3765.1	journal	July 2006
Phytoplankton influences on tropical climate: PHYTOPLANKTON INFLUENCES ON TROPICAL CLIMATE Timmermann, Axel; Jin, Fei-Fei Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 29, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GL015434	journal	December 2002
Coexistence of Equatorial Coupled Modes of ENSO Bejarano, Luis; Jin, Fei-Fei Journal of Climate, Vol. 21, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JCLI1679.1	journal	June 2008
El Niño and La Niña sea surface temperature anomalies: Asymmetry characteristics associated with their wind stress anomalies Kang, In-Sik Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 107, Issue D19 https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD000393	journal	January 2002
Niño indices for two types of ENSO: NIÑO INDICES FOR TWO TYPES OF ENSO Ren, Hong-Li; Jin, Fei-Fei Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL046031	journal	February 2011
Interdecadal Amplitude Modulation of El Niño–Southern Oscillation and Its Impact on Tropical Pacific Decadal Variability Ogata, Tomomichi; Xie, Shang-Ping; Wittenberg, Andrew Journal of Climate, Vol. 26, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00415.1	journal	September 2013
Are there two types of La Nina?: TWO TYPES OF LA NINA Kug, Jong-Seong; Ham, Yoo-Geun Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL048237	journal	August 2011
El Niño Modoki and its possible teleconnection Ashok, Karumuri; Behera, Swadhin K.; Rao, Suryachandra A. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, Issue C11 https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JC003798	journal	January 2007
Algorithms for Density, Potential Temperature, Conservative Temperature, and the Freezing Temperature of Seawater Jackett, David R.; McDougall, Trevor J.; Feistel, Rainer Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Vol. 23, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH1946.1	journal	December 2006
Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century Rayner, N. A. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 108, Issue D14 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD002670	journal	January 2003
Rectification of El Niño–Southern Oscillation into Climate Anomalies of Decadal and Longer Time Scales: Results from Forced Ocean GCM Experiments Sun, De-Zheng; Zhang, Tao; Sun, Yan Journal of Climate, Vol. 27, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00390.1	journal	April 2014
Causes of the El Niño and La Niña Amplitude Asymmetry in the Equatorial Eastern Pacific Su, Jingzhi; Zhang, Renhe; Li, Tim Journal of Climate, Vol. 23, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2894.1	journal	February 2010
Decadal amplitude modulation of two types of ENSO and its relationship with the mean state Choi, Jung; An, Soon-Il; Yeh, Sang-Wook Climate Dynamics, Vol. 38, Issue 11-12 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1186-y	journal	September 2011
Ensemble-mean dynamics of the ENSO recharge oscillator under state-dependent stochastic forcing Jin, Fei-Fei; Lin, L.; Timmermann, A. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 34, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL027372	journal	January 2007
Contrasting Eastern-Pacific and Central-Pacific Types of ENSO Kao, Hsun-Ying; Yu, Jin-Yi Journal of Climate, Vol. 22, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI2309.1	journal	February 2009
Nonlinearity and Asymmetry of ENSO* An, Soon-Il; Jin, Fei-Fei Journal of Climate, Vol. 17, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<2399:NAAOE>2.0.CO;2	journal	June 2004
Strong El Niño events and nonlinear dynamical heating Jin, Fei-Fei Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 30, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GL016356	journal	January 2003
Skewness of subsurface ocean temperature in the equatorial Pacific based on assimilated data Su, Jingzhi; Zhang, Renhe; Li, Tim Chinese Journal of Oceanology and Limnology, Vol. 27, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-009-9150-y	journal	September 2009
ENSO Transition, Duration, and Amplitude Asymmetries: Role of the Nonlinear Wind Stress Coupling in a Conceptual Model Choi, Kit-Yan; Vecchi, Gabriel A.; Wittenberg, Andrew T. Journal of Climate, Vol. 26, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00045.1	journal	December 2013
ENSO-Like and ENSO-Induced Tropical Pacific Decadal Variability in CGCMs Choi, Jung; An, Soon-Il; Yeh, Sang-Wook Journal of Climate, Vol. 26, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00118.1	journal	March 2013
Westerly Wind Bursts: ENSO’s Tail Rather than the Dog? Eisenman, Ian; Yu, Lisan; Tziperman, Eli Journal of Climate, Vol. 18, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3588.1	journal	December 2005
The ECMWF Ocean Analysis System: ORA-S3 Balmaseda, Magdalena A.; Vidard, Arthur; Anderson, David L. T. Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 136, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1175/2008MWR2433.1	journal	August 2008
Simple stochastic dynamical models capturing the statistical diversity of El Niño Southern Oscillation Chen, Nan; Majda, Andrew J. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 114, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1620766114	journal	January 2017
Strong influence of westerly wind bursts on El Niño diversity Chen, Dake; Lian, Tao; Fu, Congbin Nature Geoscience, Vol. 8, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2399	journal	April 2015
Inter-decadal modulation of the impact of ENSO on Australia Power, S.; Casey, T.; Folland, C. Climate Dynamics, Vol. 15, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s003820050284	journal	May 1999
A Nonlinear Theory for El Niño Bursting Timmermann, Axel; Jin, Fei-Fei; Abshagen, Jan Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 60, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2003)060<0152:ANTFEN>2.0.CO;2	journal	January 2003
The NCEP Climate Forecast System Saha, S.; Nadiga, S.; Thiaw, C. Journal of Climate, Vol. 19, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3812.1	journal	August 2006
El Niño and its relationship to changing background conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean: EL NIÑO ON A CHANGING BACKGROUND McPhaden, M. J.; Lee, T.; McClurg, D. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL048275	journal	August 2011
Understanding ENSO Diversity Capotondi, Antonietta; Wittenberg, Andrew T.; Newman, Matthew Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 96, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00117.1	journal	June 2015

Similar Records

The role of interannual ENSO events in decadal timescale transitions of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation

Journal Article · Wed May 12 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Climate Dynamics · OSTI ID:1413794

Meehl, Gerald A.; Teng, Haiyan; Capotondi, Antonietta; +1 more

The role of the South Pacific in modulating Tropical Pacific variability

Journal Article · Wed Dec 04 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Scientific Reports · OSTI ID:1413794

Chung, Christine T. Y.; Power, Scott B.; Sullivan, Arnold; +1 more

Changes in Sea Salt Emissions Enhance ENSO Variability

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Journal of Climate · OSTI ID:1413794

Yang, Yang; Russell, Lynn M.; Lou, Sijia; +4 more

Title: Subsurface Nonlinear Dynamical Heating and ENSO Asymmetry

Citation Formats

References (44)

Similar Records

Related Subjects