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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: Physical: El Nino
  • Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability
  • Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Ocean/atmosphere interactions
  • Global Change: Climate dynamics
  • Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Tropical meteorology

Abstract

Strong El Niño events and nonlinear dynamical heating

Fei-Fei Jin

SOEST, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Soon-Il An

SOEST, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Axel Timmermann

Institute for Marine Research, Kiel University, Germany

Jingxia Zhao

SOEST, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

We present evidence showing that the nonlinear dynamic heating (NDH) in the tropical Pacific ocean heat budget is essential in the generation of intense El Niño events as well as the observed asymmetry between El Niño (warm) and La Niña (cold) events. The increase in NDH associated with the enhanced El Niño activity had an influence on the recent tropical Pacific warming trend and it might provide a positive feedback mechanism for climate change in the tropical Pacific.

Published 6 February 2003.

Citation: Jin, F.-F., S.-I. An, A. Timmermann, and J. Zhao (2003), Strong El Niño events and nonlinear dynamical heating, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(3), 1120, doi:10.1029/2002GL016356.

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