The Termination of the 1997–98 El Niño. Part II: Mechanisms of Atmospheric Change

Abstract

AbstractThe mechanisms that drove zonal wind stress (τx) changes in the near-equatorial Pacific at the end of the extreme 1997–98 El Niño event are explored using a global atmospheric general circulation model. The analysis focuses on three features of the τx evolution between October 1997 and May 1998 that were fundamental in driving the oceanic changes at the end of this El Niño event: (i) the southward shift of near-date-line surface zonal wind stress (τx) anomalies beginning November 1997, (ii) the disappearance of the easterly τx from the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEqP) in February 1998, and (iii) the reappearance of easterly τx in the EEqP in May 1998. It is shown that these wind changes represent the deterministic response of the atmosphere to the observed sea surface temperature (SST) field, resulting from changes in the meridional structure of atmospheric convective anomalies in response to the seasonally phase-locked meridional movement of the warmest SST.The southward shift of the near-date-line τx anomalies at the end of this El Niño event was controlled by the seasonal movement of the warmest SST south of the equator, which—both directly and through its influence on the atmospheric response to changes in SST anomaly—brought the convective anomalies from being centered about the equator to being centered south of the equator. The disappearance (reappearance) of easterly EEqP τx has only been evident in extreme El Niño events and has been associated with the development (northward retreat) of an equatorial intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). The disappearance/return of EEqP easterly τx arises in the AGCM as the deterministic response to changes in the SST field, tied principally to the changes in climatological SST (given time-invariant extreme El Niño SSTA) and not to changes in the underlying SSTA field. The disappearance (return) of EEqP easterly τx in late boreal winter (late boreal spring) is a characteristic atmospheric response to idealized extreme El Niño SST anomalies; this suggests that the distinctive termination of the 1997–98 El Niño event is that to be expected for extreme El Niño events.