El Niño suppresses Antarctic warming

doi:doi:10.1029/2004GL020749

Abstract

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

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.

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.

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