How and why climate variability differs between the tropical Atlantic and Pacific
Open accessAbstract
The tropical Pacific and Atlantic Oceans share many common climatological features such as easterly trade winds, eastward shoaling thermocline, an eastern cold tongue and a northerly intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). However, a comparison of climate variability between the two oceans reveals more differences than similarities. The Pacific is dominated by the equatorially symmetric El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) while the Atlantic ITCZ is controlled by changes in interhemispheric sea surface temperature (SST) gradient. To understand the causes of these differences in variability, a dynamic ocean‐atmosphere coupling model is developed that includes both the Bjerknes and wind‐evaporation‐SST feedbacks. Equatorially symmetric and anti‐symmetric modes emerge from the model, displaying distinct growth rate dependence on zonal wavenumber. Consistent with observations, an equatorially trapped ENSO mode dominates an ocean with a longitudinal size of the Pacific while in a smaller Atlantic‐size one, a monopole mode with a broad meridional scale coexists with an equatorially anti‐symmetric dipole mode.
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Two primary modes of interannual variability have been identified in the tropical Atlantic: the equatorial and meridional modes.
“Within the last decades, two primary modes of interannual variability have been identified in the tropical Atlantic (e.g.Servain andMerle, 1993, Xie et al., 1999)): the equatorial and meridional modes.”
From Sea surface temperature patterns in the Tropical Atlantic: Principal component analysis and nonlinear principal component analysis (2017) · cites this paper as Xie et al., 1999
The Observational Background (page unavailable in our copy) favors two tropical Atlantic modes: an equatorially symmetric monopole and an antisymmetric dipole. But it describes the monopole as interannual and the dipole as decadal, so it does not support calling both modes interannual. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Simple climatic indices for the tropical Atlantic Ocean and some applications
Servain, J. (1991) · Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · doi:10.1029/91jc01046 · Cited by 345 · see citing works
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- Y. Tanimoto, T. Matsuno, Frontier Research System for Global Change, 1-2-1 Shibaura, Minato, Tokyo 105-6791, Japan (e-mail: tan i mot o @ fro n tier. esto. or.j p ) (Received February 18, 1999; revised April 7, 1999; accepted April 13, 1999) 19448007, 1999, 11, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/1999GL900308 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [16/08/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License · DOI
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Chiang, J. C. H., Kushnir, Y., & Giannini, A. (2002) · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · doi:10.1029/2000jd000307 · Cited by 264 · see citing works
Kenfack, C. S., Mkankam, F. K., Alory, G., Penhoat, Y. D., Hounkonnou, M. N., Vondou, D. A., & Jr., B. G. N. (2017) · Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences · doi:10.3319/tao.2016.08.29.01 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Xie, S., Tanimoto, Y., Noguchi, H., & Matsuno, T.
- Affiliations
- Hokkaido University (JP)
- ORCID
- Xie, Shang‐Ping
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 1999-06
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1609-1612
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8007
- OpenAlex
- W2006068451
- Cited by
- 42
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 4.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
- Keywords
- tropical Pacific variability, ENSO, Intertropical Convergence Zone, Bjerknes feedback, wind-evaporation-SST feedback, ocean-atmosphere interaction, monopole mode, dipole mode
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