Abstract
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the variability in the Pacific subtropical highs (PSHs) have major impacts on social and ecological systems. Here we present an Atlantic capacitor effect mechanism to suggest that the Atlantic is a key pacemaker of the biennial variability in the Pacific including that in ENSO and the PSHs during recent decades. The ‘charging’ (that is, ENSO imprinting the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA) sea surface temperature (SST) via an atmospheric bridge mechanism) and ‘discharging’ (that is, the NTA SST triggering the following ENSO via a subtropical teleconnection mechanism) processes alternate, generating the biennial rhythmic changes in the Pacific. Since the early 1990s, a warmer Atlantic due to the positive phase of Atlantic multidecadal oscillation and global warming trend has provided more favourable background state for the Atlantic capacitor effect, giving rise to enhanced biennial variability in the Pacific that may increase the occurrence frequency of severe natural hazard events.
Highlights
The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the variability in the Pacific subtropical highs (PSHs) have major impacts on social and ecological systems
Ham et al.[20] found that sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA) during boreal spring can trigger ENSO events in the following winter. This Atlantic-induced ENSO is characterized by SST anomalies that are strongest in the tropical central Pacific, and resembling the so-called Central Pacific (CP) type of ENSO but not the traditional Eastern Pacific (EP) type[26,27]
It is possible that the Pacific–Atlantic interaction or coupling may have become more important to ENSO variability, the QB component, as ENSO changed from the EP type to the CP type during recent decades
Summary
The El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the variability in the Pacific subtropical highs (PSHs) have major impacts on social and ecological systems. The centre of warm SST anomalies associated with El Nino has been found to move from the eastern Pacific to central Pacific during recent decades[28], which was suggested to be a Pacific Ocean response to a phase change in the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO)[24].
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