The effect of regional ocean-atmosphere coupling on the long-term variability in the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

A fully coupled ocean-atmosphere model is applied to highlight the mechanism of the long-term variability (including decadal and longer time scales) in the Pacific Ocean. We are interested in the effect of oceanatmosphere coupling of different regions during these processes. The control run successfully simulates the Pacific long-term variability, whose leading modes are the Pacific (inter) Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the North Pacific mode (NPM). Furthermore, three numerical experiments are conducted, shutting down the ocean-atmosphere coupling in the North Pacific, the tropical Pacific, and the South Pacific, respectively. The results show that regional ocean-atmosphere coupling is not only important to the strength of local long-term SST variability but also has an influence on the variability further afield. In both the tropical Pacific and North Pacific, this local effect is the main control, which is much more obvious in the tropical regions. The existence of the PDO is extremely dependent on the coupling in the tropical Pacific. However, extratropical coupling, in particular that in the North Pacific, is also important to form its spatial pattern and strengthen the variability in some tropical areas. For the NPM, its existence is primarily determined by the coupling in the North Pacific.