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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L15207, doi:10.1029/2004GL020749, 2004

El Niño suppresses Antarctic warming

Nancy A. N. Bertler

Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Lower Hutt, New Zealand


Peter J. Barrett

Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand


Paul A. Mayewski

Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Edward T. Bryand Global Science Center, Orono, Maine, USA


Ryan L. Fogt

Byrd Polar Research Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA


Karl J. Kreutz

Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, Edward T. Bryand Global Science Center, Orono, Maine, USA


James Shulmeister

Department of Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand


Abstract

Here we present new isotope records derived from snow samples from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica and re-analysis data of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA-40) to explain the connection between the warming of the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean [ Jacka and Budd, 1998 ; Jacobs et al., 2002 ] and the current cooling of the terrestrial Ross Sea region [ Doran et al., 2002a ]. Our analysis confirms previous findings that the warming is linked to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) [ Kwok and Comiso, 2002a , 2002b; Carleton, 2003 ; Ribera and Mann, 2003 ; Turner, 2004 ], and provides new evidence that the terrestrial cooling is caused by a simultaneous ENSO driven change in atmospheric circulation, sourced in the Amundsen Sea and West Antarctica.

Received 15 June 2004; accepted 12 July 2004; published 14 August 2004.

Index Terms: 3344 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Paleoclimatology; 3349 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Polar meteorology; 3374 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Tropical meteorology; 4215 Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability (3309); 4522 Oceanography: Physical: El Nino.

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Citation: Bertler, N. A. N., P. J. Barrett, P. A. Mayewski, R. L. Fogt, K. J. Kreutz, and J. Shulmeister (2004), El Niño suppresses Antarctic warming, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L15207, doi:10.1029/2004GL020749.