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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 28, NO. 6, PAGES 1051–1054, 2001

El Niño and La Niña—Equatorial Pacific Thermocline Depth and Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies, 1986-98

D. E. Harrison

Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington, Seattle

Gabriel A. Vecchi

School of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle

Abstract

Simple models of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon have provided many of our basic ideas about ENSO mechanisms. These models exhibit a range of correlation patterns between thermocline depth anomaly (Z₂₀A) and sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA). We use 13 years of Pacific equatorial waveguide observations to explore the relationships between Z₂₀A and SSTA. We find significant correlation in the eastern Pacific, and in the east-central Pacific when the east-central Pacific is normal or cooler than normal. We find no correlation in the western, west-central and east-central (when warmer than normal) Pacific. It is inappropriate to attribute SSTA changes to Z₂₀A changes. Coupled ENSO models should be reexamined in light of these observed Z₂₀A/SSTA relationships. Analysis of ocean general circulation models suggests that progress in understanding ENSO may depend as much on understanding SSTA/wind/near-surface current relationships and processes, as upon thermocline change processes.

Received 3 December 1999; accepted 29 August 2000.

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Citation: Harrison, D. E., and G. A. Vecchi (2001), El Niño and La Niña—Equatorial Pacific Thermocline Depth and Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies, 1986-98, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28(6), 1051–1054.

Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union.