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Wintertime atmospheric forcing of subtropical northeastern Pacific SST variability.

Authors :
Shu, Qi
Zhang, Yu
Yang, Jun-Chao
Wang, Shengpeng
Shi, Jian
Wang, Xudong
Lin, Xiaopei
Source :
Climate Dynamics. Dec2024, Vol. 62 Issue 12, p10733-10746. 14p.
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

While it is known that sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the subtropical northeastern Pacific (SNEP) can be forced by wintertime atmospheric variability, the region over which atmospheric variability plays the significant driving role remains to be elucidated. Based on observational data during 1900–2014 and a first-order autoregressive model, we show that SNEP SST variability is dominantly forced by wintertime atmospheric variability over the North Pacific, slightly north of the SNEP. Atmospheric variability south of the SNEP, however, does not play the dominant driving role because of atmospheric barotropic response that partially offsets baroclinic Gill response over the ocean surface. Further, by decomposing North Pacific atmospheric variability into tropical Pacific (TP)-forced and non-TP-forced components using a tropical Pacific pacemaker experiment, we find that the leading modes in the two components comparably contribute to forcing SNEP SST in the historical record. Further analyses show that their contribution is unstable on decadal timescales, with stronger forcing effect from TP-forced Aleutian Low (AL) variability before the 1930s and after the 1980s. Such non-stationary forcing effect is primarily attributed to the relative amplitude between TP-forced AL and non-TP-forced atmospheric variability, which would affect the predictability of SNEP SST variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
09307575
Volume :
62
Issue :
12
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Climate Dynamics
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
180935242
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-024-07473-y