Using repeated hydrographic measurements at 137°E,spatial-temporal variability of thermohaline intrusions in the northwestern tropical Pacific are investigated.Intrusions can be found in the main thermocline throughout the section,with their strength decreasing rapidly poleward.The strongest intrusions exist at the North Equatorial Countercurrent(NECC) where North/South Pacific thermocline water converges.These intrusions also exhibit temporal variations in strength which are closely associated with the meridional displacement of the NECC.Intrusion strength peaks in boreal winter when the NECC reaches its northernmost position of the year.At interannual time scale,intrusions tend to be weak(strong) during El Ni o(La Ni a) episodes.Variations in intrusion strength also lead to prominent fluctuation of lateral diffusivity K L and cross-front temperature flux F Θ.F Θ exhibits significant year-to-year changes which are well correlated with ENSO index,suggesting a possible role of intrusions in the low-latitude Pacific climate variability.
State-of-the-art climate models have long-standing intrinsic biases that limit their simulation and projection capabilities.Significantly weak ENSO asymmetry and weakly nonlinear air–sea interaction over the tropical Pacific was found in CMIP5(Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5) climate models compared with observation. The results suggest that a weak nonlinear air–sea interaction may play a role in the weak ENSO asymmetry. Moreover, a weak nonlinearity in air–sea interaction in the models may be associated with the biases in the mean climate—the cold biases in the equatorial central Pacific. The excessive cold tongue bias pushes the deep convection far west to the western Pacific warm pool region and suppresses its development in the central equatorial Pacific. The deep convection has difficulties in further moving to the eastern equatorial Pacific, especially during extreme El Ni o events, which confines the westerly wind anomaly to the western Pacific. This weakens the eastern Pacific El Ni o events, especially the extreme El Ni o events, and thus leads to the weakened ENSO asymmetry in climate models. An accurate mean state structure(especially a realistic cold tongue and deep convection) is critical to reproducing ENSO events in climate models. Our evaluation also revealed that ENSO statistics in CMIP5 climate models are slightly improved compared with those of CMIP3. The weak ENSO asymmetry in CMIP5 is closer to the observation. It is more evident in CMIP5 that strong ENSO activities are usually accompanied by strong ENSO asymmetry, and the diversity of ENSO amplitude is reduced.
Recent discovery of low-dimensional coherent structure in oceanic currents along with a new merged altimeter product called Absolute Dynamic Topography (ADT) makes it possible to derive subsurface ocean information from satellite remote sensing data.An altimetric geostrophic empirical mode (η-GEM) is developed in this study by projecting hydrographic transects onto the ADT sea surface height coordinate,based on which the four-dimensional thermohaline and velocity structures of oceanic currents are reconstructed from satellite surface observations.In the WOCE/SR3 area,the η-GEM fields capture more than 95% of the total thermal variance.The GEM-derived flow has equivalent-barotropic structure and represents the velocity profile better than traditional dynamic modes.Comparison with mooring observations also demonstrates that the η-GEM provides good estimates of the deep thermohaline fields.
利用近50年月平均的SODA海洋同化资料和NCEP大气再分析资料,研究了热带太平洋次表层海温异常(SOTA)年代际变率主要分布型以及与之相关的亚洲-北太平洋-北美地区上空异常大气环流场,并揭示了类ENSO模态与中国气候异常之间的联系。得到主要结果:(1)热带太平洋SOTA年代际变率有两种类ENSO模态。第一模为类ENSO事件成熟期热带太平洋年代际SOTA状态;第二模为类ENSO过渡期热带太平洋年代际SOTA状态。二者组合构成类ENSO事件40年左右及其背景下13年左右的周期振荡。(2)类ENSO事件对亚洲-北太平洋-北美上空中高纬和副热带大气系统年代际变化具有重要影响。类El Ni o成熟期间冬季,中高纬地区大气环流经向型发展,贝加尔湖高压脊加强,西太平洋副高偏强、位置偏西,蒙古高原为较强的异常反气旋环流。类El Ni o衰退期(类La Ni a发展期)夏季,贝加尔湖低压槽加深,乌拉尔山高压脊加强,西太平洋副高偏弱,新疆-河套地区为较强的异常反气旋环流距平。类La Ni a事件时相反。(3)热带太平洋类ENSO事件通过影响中高纬和副热带大气系统,造成中国北部地区上空南风距平的年代际变化,进而导致东亚季风和中国气候异常。类El Ni o事件成熟期,中国北部地区上空多异常偏北风,东亚季风弱,华北少雨,长江中、下游多雨;类El Ni o衰退(类La Ni a发展)期,中国北部地区上空亦为异常偏北气流,东亚季风较弱,华北少雨。中国气候异常型主要取决于类ENSO第一模态,而第二模态主要视位相异同来加强或减弱第一模态。两个类ENSO模态的共同作用导致1978年前后中国气候跃变和华北地区持续20余年的干旱。近期类ENSO模的振荡从1998年左右开始转为类La Ni a模态,大致在2018年左右结束。在此期间,华北降水有望增加,长江中、下游降水可能减少。
Theoretical and empirical studies have suggested that an underestimate of the ENSO asymmetry may be accompanied by a climatologically smaller and warmer western Pacific warm pool. In light of this suggestion, simulations of the tropical Pacific climate by 19 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) climate models that do not use flux adjustment were evaluated. Our evaluation revealed systematic biases in both the mean state and ENSO statistics. The mean state in most of the models had a smaller and warmer warm pool. This common bias in the mean state was accompanied by a common bias in the simulated ENSO statistics: a significantly weak asymmetry between the two phases of ENSO. Moreover, despite the generally weak ENSO asymmetry simulated by all models, a positive correlation between the magnitude of the bias in the simulated warm-pool size and the magnitude of the bias in the simulated ENSO asymmetry was found. These findings support the suggested link between ENSO asymmetry and the tropical mean state-the climatological size and temperature of the warm pool in particular. Together with previous studies, these findings light up a path to improve the simulation of the tropical Pacific mean state by climate models: enhancing the asymmetry of ENSO in the climate models.
