An overlooked feature of tropical climate: Inter-Pacific-Atlantic variability.
Abstract
Both the tropical Pacific and Atlantic host an equatorial mode of interannual variability called the Pacific El Niño and the Atlantic Niño, respectively. Although the Pacific El Niño does not correlate with the Atlantic Niño, anomalous warming or cooling of the two equatorial oceans can form an inter‐Pacific‐Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) gradient variability that induces surface zonal wind anomalies over equatorial South America and over some regions of both ocean basins. The zonal wind anomalies act to bridge the interaction of the two ocean basins, reinforcing the inter‐Pacific‐Atlantic SST gradient through atmospheric Walker circulations and oceanic dynamics. Thus, a positive feedback seems to exist for climate variability of the tropical Pacific‐Atlantic Oceans and atmosphere system, in which the inter‐basin SST gradient is coupled to the overlying atmospheric wind. Rainfall responds to the inter‐Pacific‐Atlantic SST gradient by showing an anti‐symmetric configuration between the two equatorial oceans, suggesting that rainfall is sensitive to the equatorial inter‐basin SST gradient, regardless of which ocean is anomalously warm or cold.
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The SLA pattern associated with the equatorial mode consists of an anomalous eastern equatorial Atlantic tongue (as the SST) and a western equatorial Atlantic with an opposite sign SLA, in a seesaw-like thermocline configuration.
“The SLA pattern associated with the EM consists of an anomalous eastern equatorial Atlantic tongue (as the SST) and a western equatorial Atlantic with an opposite sign SLA, in a seesaw-like thermocline configuration (not shown), in agreement with other authors (Wang 2006;Keenlyside and Latif 2007).”
From Tropical Atlantic variability modes (1979-2002). Part I: Time-evolving SST modes related to West African rainfall (2008) · cites this paper as Wang 2006
Our results disagree with Latif and Grötzner (2000), Florenchie et al. (2003), and Wang (2006) with regard to the oceanic wave propagation's role in the origin of the equatorial and South Atlantic SST variability.
“Our results presented above disagree with Latif and Grötzner (2000), Florenchie et al. (2003), and Wang (2006) with regard to the oceanic wave propagation's role in the origin of the equatorial and South Atlantic SST variability.”
From Tropical Atlantic variability modes (1979-2002). Part I: Time-evolving SST modes related to West African rainfall (2008) · cites this paper as Wang (2006)
The Pacific-Atlantic SST gradient drives atmospheric circulation across equatorial South America via the SLP gradient and influences tropical climate variability in a feedback way.
“Wang (2006) has discussed the importance of the Pacific-Atlantic SST gradient driving the atmospheric circulation across equatorial South America via the SLP gradient and influencing the tropical climate variability in a feedback way.”
From Tropical Atlantic variability modes (1979-2002). Part I: Time-evolving SST modes related to West African rainfall (2008) · cites this paper as Wang (2006)
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Polo, I., Rodríguez-Fonseca, B., Losada, T., & García-Serrano, J. (2008) · Journal of Climate · doi:10.1175/2008jcli2607.1 · Cited by 155 · see citing works
Pronounced interannual variability in tropical South Pacific temperatures during Heinrich Stadial 1
Felis, T., Merkel, U., Asami, R., Deschamps, P., Hathorne, E. C., Kölling, M., Bard, E., Cabioch, G., Durand, N., Prange, M., et al. (2012) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms1973 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
- Authors
- Wang, C.
- Affiliations
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wang, Chunzai
- ORCID
- Wang, Chunzai
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2006-06
- Volume
- 33
- Issue
- 12
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8007
- OpenAlex
- W2088280488
- Cited by
- 129
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 3.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
- Keywords
- Atlantic Niño, sea surface temperature gradient, zonal wind anomalies, Walker circulation, positive feedback, equatorial rainfall, tropical climate variability
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