FastFind »   Lastname: doi:10.1029/ Year: Advanced Search  

G-Cubed: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems; an electronic journal of the Earth sciences

 

Keywords

  • Atlantic warm pool
  • Atlantic multidecadal oscillation
  • Atlantic tropical cyclones
  • Atlantic hurricanes
  • climate variability

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Processes: Tropical meteorology
  • Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability
  • Global Change: Impacts of global change
Abstract
Cited By (7)
 

Abstract

Atlantic Warm Pool acting as a link between Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Atlantic tropical cyclone activity

Chunzai Wang

NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149, USA

Sang-Ki Lee

Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149, USA

David B. Enfield

NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, Florida 33149, USA

Multidecadal variability of Atlantic tropical cyclone activity is observed to relate to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), a mode manifesting primarily in sea surface temperature (SST) in the high latitudes of the North Atlantic. In the low latitudes of the North Atlantic, a large body of warm water called the Atlantic Warm Pool (AWP) comprises the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the western tropical North Atlantic. AWP variability occurs on both interannual and multidecadal timescales as well as with a secular variation. The AWP multidecadal variability coincides with the signal of the AMO; that is, the warm (cool) phases of the AMO are characterized by repeated large (small) AWPs. Since the climate response to the North Atlantic SST anomalies is primarily forced at the low latitudes and the AWP is in the path of or a birthplace for Atlantic tropical cyclones, the influence of the AMO on Atlantic tropical cyclone activity may operate through the mechanism of the AWP-induced atmospheric changes. The AWP-induced changes related to tropical cyclones that we emphasize here include a dynamical parameter of tropospheric vertical wind shear and a thermodynamical parameter of convective instability. More specifically, an anomalously large (small) AWP reduces (enhances) the vertical wind shear in the hurricane main development region and increases (decreases) the moist static instability of the troposphere, both of which favor (disfavor) Atlantic tropical cyclone activity. This is the most plausible way in which the AMO relationship with Atlantic tropical cyclones can be understood.

Received 31 August 2007; accepted 13 March 2008; published 15 May 2008.

Citation: Wang, C., S.-K. Lee, and D. B. Enfield (2008), Atlantic Warm Pool acting as a link between Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Atlantic tropical cyclone activity, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 9, Q05V03, doi:10.1029/2007GC001809.

Cited By

Please wait one moment ...