Revisiting the equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature response to global warming

Li, Qiuxian; Luo, Yiyong; Lu, Jian; Liu, Fukai

doi:10.1007/s00382-023-07019-8

Revisiting the equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature response to global warming

Journal Article · Sat Dec 02 00:00:00 EST 2023 · Climate Dynamics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-023-07019-8· OSTI ID:2337885

Li, Qiuxian ^[1]; Luo, Yiyong ^[1]; Lu, Jian ^[2]; Liu, Fukai ^[1]

Ocean Univ. of China, Qingdao (China)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

The relative roles of the oceanic and atmospheric processes in the pattern formation of the equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) response to global warming is investigated using a set of climate model experiments embedded with a novel partial coupling technique. Here, the modeling results show that the SST response experiences a transition from a La Niña-like warming pattern at the initial stage to an El Niño-like warming pattern at the quasi-equilibrium stage. By decomposing anomalous equatorial Pacific SST into atmosphere-forced passive component and ocean dynamics-induced active component, it is found that the SST warming pattern at both stages is entirely induced by its active component. Specifically, the meridional and vertical ocean circulation changes play a dominant role in forming the La Niña-like SST warming pattern at the initial stage, and the zonal and meridional ocean circulation changes are responsible for the formation of the El Niño-like SST warming pattern at the quasi-equilibrium stage. In contrast, the passive SST at both stages is characterized by a zonally uniform warming along the equator, which can be explained by a balance between the cooling effect associated with mean upwelling and the warming effect due to surface passive heat flux change. In addition, this study finds that it is the slowdown of the Pacific subtropical cells during the transition period that controls the evolution of the equatorial SST warming pattern by changing the meridional and vertical ocean heat transports.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231; AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 2337885

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--179276

Journal Information:: Climate Dynamics, Journal Name: Climate Dynamics Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 62; ISSN 0930-7575

Publisher:: Springer-VerlagCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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