Free and Forced Variability of the Tropical Atlantic Ocean: Role of the Wind–Evaporation–Sea Surface Temperature Feedback

Abstract

Abstract The role of the wind–evaporation–sea surface temperature (WES) feedback in the low-frequency natural variability of the tropical Atlantic is studied using an atmospheric global climate model—the NCAR Community Climate Model, version 3 (CCM3)—thermodynamically coupled to a slab ocean model (SOM). The coupled model is modified to suppress the WES feedback and is compared to a control run. Singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis over the tropical Atlantic reveals that the coupled meridional mode of the Atlantic Ocean is amplified in the presence of the WES feedback. In its absence, the meridional mode still exists, but with a weaker amplitude. A feedback mechanism that involves the near-surface specific humidity is proposed to sustain the weaker Atlantic meridional mode in the absence of the WES feedback. Similar analysis of coupled model integrations when forced with an artificial El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-like SST cycle in the Pacific reveals that in the presence of the WES feedback, the meridional mode is the preferred mode of response of the tropical Atlantic to ENSO forcing. In the absence of the WES feedback, the tropical Atlantic response is unlike the meridional mode and the effects of tropospheric warming and subsidence dominate. Regression analysis over the tropical Atlantic reveals that the meridional mode response to ENSO peaks in the spring and begins to decay in the fall in the coupled model in the presence of the WES feedback. The WES feedback also appears to be responsible for the northward migration of the ITCZ during ENSO events.