Multilag Singular Value Decomposition Analysis of ENSO Convection with Tropical Stratospheric Temperature

Abstract

Abstract Multilag singular value decomposition (MLSVD) analysis is developed and applied to diagnosing the impact of interannual variations of outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) on tropical stratospheric temperature changes. MLSVD is designed to analyze simultaneously variations at multiple levels and for a large number of temporal lags and leads. The two dominant MLSVDs are strongly related to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The associated patterns of tropical OLR are similar to the canonical ENSO SST patterns with strong negative sign regions stretching along the equator in the eastern and central Pacific. These dominant modes are strongly linked to temperature perturbations at a wide range of lags. At the lowest analyzed level (200 hPa) and zero lag positive temperatures anomalies are in the region of low OLR. In the lower stratosphere near 100 hPa, strong negative temperature perturbations replace the positive values of the lowest level. Higher in the stratosphere near 20 hPa, equatorial temperature perturbations are again positive, but with a more zonally elongated spatial pattern. Overall, the equatorial temperature anomalies propagate slowly to the east, at a speed strongly related to ocean–atmosphere coupling of less than 1 m s−1, and vertically and westward into the stratosphere by Rossby waves with a speed in the range of 30 m s−1.