CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 857Climate variability and modelsOceanographic and Atmospheric ProcessesGeology and Paleoclimatology Research

Tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature variability and its relation to El Niño‐Southern Oscillation

Enfield, David B., Mayer, Dennis A.·1997·Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
DOI 10.1029/96jc03296
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Past analyses of tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature variability have suggested a dipole behavior between the northern and southern tropics, across the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). By analyzing an improved 43‐year (1950–1992) record of SST [ Smith et al , 1996] and other data derived from the Comprehensive Ocean‐Atmosphere Data Set (COADS), it is shown that the regions north and south of the ITCZ are statistically independent of each other at the seasonal to interannual timescales dominating the data, confirming the conclusions of Houghton and Tourre [1992]. Some dipole behavior does develop weakly during the boreal spring season, when there is a tendency for SST anomaly west of Angola to be opposite of that in the tropical North Atlantic. It is further shown that tropical Atlantic SST variability is correlated with Pacific El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability in several regions. The major region affected is the North Atlantic area of NE trades west of 40°W along 10°N–20°N and extending into the Caribbean. There, about 50–80% of the anomalous SST variability is associated with the Pacific ENSO, with Atlantic warmings occurring 4–5 months after the mature phases of Pacific warm events. An analysis of local surface flux fields derived from COADS data shows that the ENSO‐related Atlantic warmings occur as a result of reductions in the surface NE trade wind speeds, which in turn reduce latent and sensible heat losses over the region in question, as well…

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1029/96jc03296

Cites

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The anomalously warm SST in the tropical North Atlantic tends to peak in boreal spring, approximately one season after the typical peak of an El Niño event in boreal winter.

    “The anomalously warm SST in the tropical North Atlantic tends to peak in boreal spring, approximately one season after the typical peak of an El Niño event in boreal winter [Enfield and Mayer, 1997].”

    From Impacts of canonical and Modoki El Niño on tropical Atlantic SST (2014) · cites this paper as Enfield and Mayer, 1997

  • The combination of midlatitude and equatorial teleconnections tends to weaken the northeasterly trade winds in the tropical North Atlantic, reducing evaporative cooling and increasing SST.

    “The combination of midlatitude and equatorial teleconnections tends to weaken the northeasterly trade winds in the tropical North Atlantic, reducing evaporative cooling of the ocean's surface and increasing SST [Carton et al., 1996;Enfield and Mayer, 1997].”

    From Impacts of canonical and Modoki El Niño on tropical Atlantic SST (2014) · cites this paper as Enfield and Mayer, 1997

  • There is significant external forcing of TAV from ENSO, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the South Atlantic Anticyclone.

    “There is also significant external forcing of TAV from ENSO, the North Atlantic Oscillation, and the South Atlantic Anticyclone (Enfield and Mayer, 1997;Czaja et al., 2002;Chang et al., 2006;Illig and Dewitte, 2006;Lübbecke et al., 2010;Lübbecke and McPhaden, 2012).”

    From The tropical atlantic observing system (2019) · cites this paper as Enfield and Mayer, 1997

  • There is robust forcing of the tropical Atlantic from the tropical Pacific on interannual and longer timescales.

    “There is robust forcing of the tropical Atlantic from the tropical Pacific on interannual and longer timescales (Enfield and Mayer, 1997;Chiang et al., 2002;Villamayor and Mohino, 2015).”

    From The tropical atlantic observing system (2019) · cites this paper as Enfield and Mayer, 1997

  • No coupled dipole exists on interannual time scales in the tropical Atlantic.

    “It is also generally agreed that no coupled dipole exists on interannual time scales (e.g., Enfield and Mayer 1997), and this is probably also true on decadal time scales (Dommenget and Latif 2000).”

    From Understanding equatorial atlantic interannual variability (2007) · cites this paper as Enfield and Mayer 1997

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Enfield, D. B., & Mayer, D. A.
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Published
1997-01-15
Volume
102
Issue
C1
Pages
929-945
ISSN
0148-0227 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1029/96jc03296
OpenAlex
W1963675163
Cited by
857
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 31 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 41 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 31
FWCI
22.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (publishedVersion)
  • Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) (acceptedVersion)
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 › Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
Keywords
tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature, ENSO, Intertropical Convergence Zone, North Atlantic warming, ENSO teleconnections, sensible and latent heat fluxes, ITCZ migration, Gulf of Guinea, boreal spring, seasonal and interannual variability, entrainment

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review