skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Future Projections of the El Niño—Southern Oscillation and Tropical Pacific Mean State in CMIP6

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JD037563· OSTI ID:2204447
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences Iowa State University Ames IA USA
  2. Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences Iowa State University Ames IA USA, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division Berkeley CA USA

Abstract The El Niño—Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an important mode of tropical Pacific atmosphere‐ocean variability that drives teleconnections with weather and climate globally. However, prior studies using state‐of‐the‐art climate models lack consensus regarding future ENSO projections and are often impacted by tropical Pacific sea‐surface temperature (SST) biases. We used 173 simulations from 29 climate models participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, version 6 (CMIP6) to analyze model biases and future ENSO projections. We analyzed two ENSO indices, namely the ENSO Longitude Index (ELI), which measures zonal shifts in tropical Pacific deep convection and accounts for changes in background SST, and the Niño 3.4 index, which measures SST anomalies in the central‐eastern equatorial Pacific. We found that the warm eastern tropical‐subtropical Pacific SST bias typical of previous generations of climate models persists into many of the CMIP6 models. Future projections of ENSO shift toward more El Niño‐like conditions based on ELI in 48% of simulations and 55% of models, in association with a future weakening of the zonal equatorial Pacific SST gradient. On the other hand, none of the models project a significant shift toward La Niña‐like conditions. The standard deviation of the Niño 3.4 index indicates a lack of consensus on whether an increase or decrease in ENSO variability is expected in the future. Finally, we found a possible relationship between historical SST and low‐level cloud cover biases in the ENSO region and future changes in ELI; however, this result may be impacted by limitations in data availability.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
2204447
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2204448
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres Vol. 128 Journal Issue: 21; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (80)

Enhanced Predictability of Eastern North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity Using the ENSO Longitude Index journal August 2020
Indices of El Niño and El Niño Modoki: An improved El Niño Modoki index journal August 2010
Frequency of extreme El Niño and La Niña events under global warming journal July 2019
ENSO and greenhouse warming journal August 2015
Increasing frequency of extreme El Niño events due to greenhouse warming journal January 2014
Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experimental design and organization journal January 2016
Global patterns of ENSO-induced precipitation journal May 2000
El Niño–Southern Oscillation complexity journal July 2018
Degree of simulated suppression of Atlantic tropical cyclones modulated by flavour of El Niño journal December 2015
Atmospheric Response Patterns Associated with Tropical Forcing journal August 2002
Stronger Increase in the Frequency of Extreme Convective than Extreme Warm El Niño Events under Greenhouse Warming journal January 2020
Convective Control of ENSO Simulated in MIROC journal January 2011
Strengthening tropical Pacific zonal sea surface temperature gradient consistent with rising greenhouse gases journal June 2019
El Niño Southern Oscillation phenomena journal March 1983
Impacts of recent El Niño Modoki on dry/wet conditions in the Pacific rim during boreal summer journal March 2007
El Niño in a changing climate: a multi-model study journal January 2005
Two Types of El Niño Events: Cold Tongue El Niño and Warm Pool El Niño journal March 2009
Tropical Oceanic Influences on Observed Global Tropical Cyclone Frequency journal July 2022
Increasing intensity of El Niño in the central-equatorial Pacific: INCREASING INTENSITY OF EL NIÑO journal July 2010
El Niño Modoki and its possible teleconnection journal January 2007
Episodes of surface westerly winds as observed from islands in the western tropical Pacific journal January 1991
The Role of Westerly Wind Bursts During Different Seasons Versus Ocean Heat Recharge in the Development of Extreme El Niño in Climate Models journal August 2020
Maximizing ENSO as a source of western US hydroclimate predictability journal October 2019
The impact of westerly wind bursts on the diversity and predictability of El Niño events: An ocean energetics perspective: Hu et al.: WWB and ENSO diversity: energetics view journal July 2014
Equatorial wave sequence associated with warm pool displacements during the 1986–1989 El Niño‐La Niña journal September 1995
El Niño Southern Oscillation in an ensemble ocean reanalysis and coupled climate models: Enso in Ensemble Soda and CMIP5 journal September 2013
Observing and Predicting the 2015/16 El Niño journal July 2017
The impact of global warming on the tropical Pacific Ocean and El Niño journal May 2010
Understanding El Niño in Ocean–Atmosphere General Circulation Models: Progress and Challenges journal March 2009
Spatial and temporal structure of Tropical Pacific interannual variability in 20th century coupled simulations journal January 2006
Increased frequency of extreme La Niña events under greenhouse warming journal January 2015
The Impact of Convection on ENSO: From a Delayed Oscillator to a Series of Events journal November 2008
Atlantic Seasonal Hurricane Frequency. Part I: El Niño and 30 mb Quasi-Biennial Oscillation Influences journal September 1984
Impact of a modified convective scheme on the Madden-Julian Oscillation and El Niño-Southern Oscillation in a coupled climate model: MJO AND ENSO SIMULATED BY A COUPLED GCM journal August 2007
matplotlib/matplotlib: REL: v3.6.2 software January 2022
Strong influence of westerly wind bursts on El Niño diversity journal April 2015
Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature, Version 5 (ERSSTv5): Upgrades, Validations, and Intercomparisons journal October 2017
seaborn: statistical data visualization journal April 2021
The two types of ENSO in CMIP5 models: TWO TYPES OF ENSO IN CMIP5 MODELS journal June 2012
Surface Winds from Tropical Pacific Islands—Climatological Statistics journal February 1990
The impact of eastern equatorial Pacific convection on the diversity of boreal winter El Niño teleconnection patterns journal February 2016
Response of ENSO amplitude to global warming in CESM large ensemble: uncertainty due to internal variability journal August 2017
Global warming, convective threshold and false thermostats journal January 2009
Identification of Central‐Pacific and Eastern‐Pacific types of ENSO in CMIP3 models journal August 2010
Understanding ENSO Diversity journal June 2015
Global Seasonal Precipitation Anomalies Robustly Associated with El Niño and La Niña Events—An OLR Perspective journal August 2015
El Niño in a changing climate journal September 2009
Response of El Niño sea surface temperature variability to greenhouse warming journal August 2014
Global Climatic Anomalies Associated with Extremes in the Southern Oscillation journal September 1989
How well do current climate models simulate two types of El Nino? journal August 2011
Over-projected Pacific warming and extreme El Niño frequency due to CMIP5 common biases journal April 2021
The role of atmosphere feedbacks during ENSO in the CMIP3 models journal July 2009
Climate model biases in the eastern tropical oceans: causes, impacts and ways forward: Climate model biases in the eastern tropical oceans journal March 2015
A coupled-stability index for ENSO journal January 2006
ENSO regimes: Reinterpreting the canonical and Modoki El Niño: REINTERPRETING ENSO MODES journal May 2011
ENSO in the CMIP5 Simulations: Life Cycles, Diversity, and Responses to Climate Change journal January 2017
The response of the equatorial Pacific Ocean to a westerly wind burst in May 1986 journal January 1988
ENSO representation in climate models: from CMIP3 to CMIP5 journal April 2013
El Niño Impacts on Seasonal U.S. Atmospheric Circulation, Temperature, and Precipitation Anomalies: The OLR-Event Perspective journal February 2013
Enhanced El Niño–Southern Oscillation Variability in Recent Decades journal April 2020
The impact of westerly wind bursts and ocean initial state on the development, and diversity of El Niño events journal April 2014
ENSO as an Integrating Concept in Earth Science journal December 2006
The Influence of ENSO Flavors on Western North Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity journal July 2018
Signal Versus Noise in the Southern Oscillation journal February 1984
Variations in Tropical Sea Surface Temperature and Surface Wind Fields Associated with the Southern Oscillation/El Niño journal May 1982
An ENSO stability analysis. Part II: results from the twentieth and twenty-first century simulations of the CMIP3 models journal June 2010
Westerly wind bursts and their relationship with ENSO in CMIP3 models journal February 2011
Indices of El Niño Evolution journal April 2001
Recent progress on two types of El Niño: Observations, dynamics, and future changes journal January 2014
Sensitivity of ENSO Simulation to the Convection Schemes in the NESM3 Climate System Model: Atmospheric Processes journal February 2021
Global and Regional Scale Precipitation Patterns Associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation journal August 1987
The response of the coupled tropical ocean–atmosphere to westerly wind bursts journal January 2002
Twentieth century tropical sea surface temperature trends revisited: TWENTIETH CENTURY TROPICAL SST TRENDS journal May 2010
Triggering of El Ni�o by westerly wind events in a coupled general circulation model journal August 2004
How Does El Niño–Southern Oscillation Change Under Global Warming—A First Look at CMIP6 journal November 2020
Increased variability of eastern Pacific El Niño under greenhouse warming journal December 2018
ENSO Change in Climate Projections: Forced Response or Internal Variability? journal October 2018
Diversity of ENSO Events Unified by Convective Threshold Sea Surface Temperature: A Nonlinear ENSO Index journal September 2018
Intermodel Uncertainty in ENSO Amplitude Change Tied to Pacific Ocean Warming Pattern journal October 2016
Using Indicators of ENSO, IOD, and SAM to Improve Lead Time and Accuracy of Tropical Cyclone Outlooks for Australia journal November 2020

Similar Records

Towards understanding the robust strengthening of ENSO and more frequent extreme El Niño events in CMIP6 global warming simulations
Journal Article · Sun Jun 25 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Climate Dynamics · OSTI ID:2204447

Linearity in ENSO's Atmospheric Response*
Journal Article · Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2002 · Journal of Climate · OSTI ID:2204447

Maximizing ENSO as a source of western US hydroclimate predictability
Journal Article · Wed Oct 16 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Climate Dynamics · OSTI ID:2204447

Related Subjects