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Title: A surface layer variance heat budget for ENSO

Abstract

Abstract Characteristics of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), such as frequency, propagation, spatial extent, and amplitude, strongly depend on the climatological background state of the tropical Pacific. Multidecadal changes in the ocean mean state are hence likely to modulate ENSO properties. To better link background state variations with low‐frequency amplitude changes of ENSO, we develop a diagnostic framework that determines locally the contributions of different physical feedback terms on the ocean surface temperature variance. Our analysis shows that multidecadal changes of ENSO variance originate from the delicate balance between the background‐state‐dependent positive thermocline feedback and the atmospheric damping of sea surface temperatures anomalies. The role of higher‐order processes and atmospheric and oceanic nonlinearities is also discussed. The diagnostic tool developed here can be easily applied to other tropical ocean areas and climate phenomena.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [4]
  1. ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science University of New South Wales Sydney New South Wales Australia
  2. International Pacific Research Center and Department of Oceanography University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Honolulu Hawaii USA
  3. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, SOEST University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Honolulu Hawaii USA, Laboratory for Climate Studies, Beijing Climate Center Chinese Meteorological Agency Beijing China
  4. European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Reading UK
Publication Date:
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1402300
Grant/Contract Number:  
DESC005110
Resource Type:
Publisher's Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Geophysical Research Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Volume: 42 Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Citation Formats

Boucharel, Julien, Timmermann, Axel, Santoso, Agus, England, Matthew H., Jin, Fei‐Fei, and Balmaseda, Magdalena A.. A surface layer variance heat budget for ENSO. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1002/2015GL063843.
Boucharel, Julien, Timmermann, Axel, Santoso, Agus, England, Matthew H., Jin, Fei‐Fei, & Balmaseda, Magdalena A.. A surface layer variance heat budget for ENSO. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063843
Boucharel, Julien, Timmermann, Axel, Santoso, Agus, England, Matthew H., Jin, Fei‐Fei, and Balmaseda, Magdalena A.. Wed . "A surface layer variance heat budget for ENSO". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063843.
@article{osti_1402300,
title = {A surface layer variance heat budget for ENSO},
author = {Boucharel, Julien and Timmermann, Axel and Santoso, Agus and England, Matthew H. and Jin, Fei‐Fei and Balmaseda, Magdalena A.},
abstractNote = {Abstract Characteristics of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), such as frequency, propagation, spatial extent, and amplitude, strongly depend on the climatological background state of the tropical Pacific. Multidecadal changes in the ocean mean state are hence likely to modulate ENSO properties. To better link background state variations with low‐frequency amplitude changes of ENSO, we develop a diagnostic framework that determines locally the contributions of different physical feedback terms on the ocean surface temperature variance. Our analysis shows that multidecadal changes of ENSO variance originate from the delicate balance between the background‐state‐dependent positive thermocline feedback and the atmospheric damping of sea surface temperatures anomalies. The role of higher‐order processes and atmospheric and oceanic nonlinearities is also discussed. The diagnostic tool developed here can be easily applied to other tropical ocean areas and climate phenomena.},
doi = {10.1002/2015GL063843},
journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
number = 9,
volume = 42,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Wed May 13 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063843

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Cited by: 13 works
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