Sea Surface Temperature Warming Pattern Research Articles

Distinct responses of tropical cyclone activity to spatio-uniform and nonuniform SST warming patterns

Most previous studies have reported a decrease in global tropical cyclone (TC) genesis frequency (TCGF) under anthropogenic warming. However, little attention has been drawn to the influence of sea surface temperature (SST) warming patterns on TCGF changes. Here, we investigate the impacts of three distinct SST warming patterns on global TCGF: uniform SST warming, nonuniform (El Niño-like) SST warming, and a combination of both. Results show that spatio-uniform SST warming has a limited impact on global TCGF, instead redistributing the TC genesis locations. Conversely, nonuniform SST warming significantly suppresses global TCGF. The combined warming produces a similar decrease in TCGF to nonuniform warming albeit with differences in spatial distribution. This indicates the dominant role of nonuniform SST warming in affecting TCGF and highlights the nonlinearity of the process. Further analysis shows that these differences in TCGF primarily stem from the distinct responses of tropical circulations to the three warming patterns.

Responses of the Madden–Julian Oscillation to Global Warming: Impacts from Tropical Sea Surface Temperature Changes

Abstract The impacts of tropical sea surface temperature (SST) changes on the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) are investigated using the large-ensemble simulation from the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2-LE) under the shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP370 scenario). Three SST change patterns are featured, distinguished by the zonal gradient of the change in the equatorial Pacific warming. MJO characteristics and its teleconnections responses are composited for the clusters, and their relationships to the zonal SST gradient changes are examined. Results show that the anomalously strong El Niño–like SST change pattern significantly intensifies the MJO amplitude and enhances its eastward extension compared to the anomalously weak El Niño–like SST change pattern. These changes in MJO amplitude are further interpreted through the α framework. We also found no statistically different extratropical geopotential height responses to MJO between the three SST warming patterns, possibly due to strong internal climate variability. Changes in Rossby wave source between clusters also show a weak relationship with the MJO teleconnections. Our results highlight the importance of Indo-Pacific zonal SST gradient changes on the changes of MJO but limited impacts on MJO teleconnections to the midlatitudes.

An Eulerian perspective on habitat models of striped bass occurrence in an offshore wind development area

Abstract Offshore wind energy development, including along the US Atlantic coast, frequently occurs within important multispecies migration corridors; however, assessing the regional factors influencing the local Eulerian occurrence of these species poses a significant challenge. We used generalized models incorporating lagged variables and hierarchical formulations to account for temporal dependencies and hierarchical structure that occur outside the narrower frame of a sampled project area. Acoustically tagged striped bass, the most frequently detected species regionally, were sampled using a gridded acoustic telemetry array in the Maryland Wind Energy Area of the US Mid-Atlantic Bight. The daily occurrence of striped bass was better explained by broad-scale sea surface temperature warming patterns than by local concurrent environmental conditions, demonstrating the importance of drivers that occur across the wider spatial scales of migration. Weekly residency patterns were similar between tagging origin groups, suggesting that Chesapeake Bay, Hudson River, Delaware Bay, and other Northwest Atlantic populations migrate synchronously through the Southern Mid-Atlantic Bight and are similarly influenced by sea surface temperature. Our study demonstrates that adapting an Eulerian approach to include lagged variables can improve regional assessments of fish on the move until richer Lagrangian insights become possible through future coordination of telemetry arrays throughout the Mid-Atlantic flyway.

Two Competing Drivers of the Recent Walker Circulation Trend

AbstractThe Pacific Walker circulation (PWC) weakens under global warming in climate change projections, supported by a global hydrological constraint. However, the PWC has strengthened over the past decades despite ongoing global warming, and the cause has been a puzzle. Because PWC is coupled with the pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) in the tropical Pacific, quantifying the relative impact of SST pattern change and global warming on the past PWC trend is important. We show, using an atmosphere model driven by observed boundary conditions for 1979–2013 and a hypothetical uniform surface warming trend with varying magnitude, that the PWC scales with warming and weakens by 8% per °C, but this effect cannot overcome the SST pattern effect that intensifies the circulation. Further attribution experiments show that the past strengthening of PWC is explained directly by the SST warming pattern in the narrow equatorial band, about 30% of which is induced by the Indian Ocean.

Long-term shift and recent early onset of chlorophyll-a bloom and coastal upwelling along the southern coast of Java

Long-term change in the timing of coastal upwelling due to climate variations alters the heat budget and biogeochemical balance in the regional ocean and is an important issue in local fisheries. In this study, we investigated decadal changes in the onset of coastal upwelling along the southern coast of Java over the past two decades (2003–2020) based on the timing of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) bloom. We estimated the bloom from satellite Chl-a concentration data. On average, the onset of coastal upwelling observed (the first Chl-a bloom of the year) was around mid-June. In the most recent decade (2011–2020), earlier-onset upwelling (before early June) was observed frequently, and the linear trend for the onset date during 2003–2020 was about 2 weeks earlier/decade. To explore the causes of the change in the timing of the upwelling, we focused on the season (April–June) during which these earlier upwelling onsets occurred, and investigated decadal changes in atmosphere and ocean conditions associated with climate change. While sea surface temperature (SST) trends reflected a basin-wide warming pattern in the Indian Ocean, warming was not significant in the southeastern Indian Ocean. During the onset period of coastal upwelling, significant SST warming trends were also observed west of Sumatra. In association with the SST warming pattern, enhanced convective activity and convergent zonal winds around Sumatra were observed. Atmospheric forcing revealed trends favoring Ekman downwelling in the equatorial eastern Indian Ocean and upwelling in the southeastern Indian Ocean, which was consistent with the trends in thermocline depth. This study provides the first results regarding the recent decadal shift in the onset timing of coastal upwelling. Ongoing monitoring is needed to better understand the long-term change of the upwelling system in the eastern tropical Indian Ocean.

Future Changes in Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Affecting Hokkaido and Their Related Precipitation Based on Large-Ensemble Climate Simulations

Abstract This study investigates the impact of future climate warming on tropical cyclones (TC) and extratropical cyclones (ETC) using the database for Policy Decision-Making for Future Climate Change (d4PDF) large ensemble simulations. Cyclone tracking was performed using the neighbor enclosed area tracking algorithm (NEAT), and TC and ETCs were identified over the western North Pacific Ocean (WNP). For cyclone frequency, it was revealed that, although a slight underestimation of the total number of TCs and ETCs in both the WNP and near Hokkaido, Japan, exists, the d4PDF reproduced the spatial distribution of both TC and ETC tracks well when compared with observations/reanalysis. The 4-K warming scenarios derived from six different sea surface temperature warming patterns showed robust decreases in TC frequency in the tropical WNP and a slight reduction in ETCs near Japan. Next, precipitation characteristics for TCs or ETCs in the vicinity of Hokkaido were examined using 5-km-mesh regional climate ensemble simulations. Four representative cyclone locations near Hokkaido are identified using K-means clustering and revealed distinct precipitation characteristics between clusters, with higher TC-associated precipitation than ETC-associated precipitation and the heaviest precipitation in the southern portion of the prefecture. The 4-K warming scenarios revealed increased precipitation for all cyclone placements for both TCs and ETCs. Last, average cyclone intensity, translation speed, and size were examined. It was shown that TCs in future climates are more intense, propagate more slowly, and are smaller in terms of enclosed vorticity area as they approach Hokkaido. For ETCs, mean intensity does not change much; they travel slightly faster, and become smaller.

Anthropogenic influence on the occurrence of extreme drought like that in eastern China in 2019

Eastern China (EC) experienced extreme drought during August–November 2019, with notable features of a particularly prolonged duration and record-breaking intensity, leading to huge agricultural and economic losses. In the context of anthropogenic climate change, the authors investigated the anthropogenic impacts on the occurrence of extreme drought like that in 2019 (2019Drought-like event) and the related physical mechanism. The authors first selected relatively better-performing models by evaluating their historical simulations, and found that the occurrence probability of a 2019Drought-like event increased by eight times due to anthropogenic forcing. It seems that anthropogenic forcing induces background mean state changes over EC, including a decline in mean moisture content and enhanced mean descending motion. These two mean state changes are favorable for the formation of extreme drought. Diagnosis of the moisture budget showed that the decline in mean moisture mainly stems from the enhanced mean descending motion via the term −δω¯·∂q¯∂p (vertical advection of mean moisture by the change in mean vertical motion). The enhanced descent is linked to the anthropogenic forcing–induced mean sea surface temperature warming pattern, which exhibits a maximum near the equatorial region. This reinforces the mean ascending motion over the Maritime Continent, as in “the rich-get-richer” mechanism, and further causes strengthened subsidence over the EC region through a “regional Hadley circulation”. This study suggests that anthropogenic forcing can sharply increase the occurrence probability of a 2019Drought-like event by modulating large-scale circulations.摘要2019年夏秋季中国东部遭遇了七十年一遇的强持续性极端干旱事件. 本文借助于CMIP6检测归因模式比较计划 (DAMIP) 数据, 量化了人为强迫对类似2019年极端干旱事件发生概率的影响. 通过比较不同外强迫因子作用下此类极端干旱事件的发生概率, 发现人为强迫可使此类极端干旱事件的发生概率提高8倍左右. 进一步研究发现人为强迫引起的海表温度增暖是经向不均匀的, 对应海洋大陆附近存在一个增暖大值中心, 从而增强海洋大陆地区平均上升环流, 通过局地Hadley环流作用导致中国东部地区平均垂直环流出现异常下沉, 最终有利于中国东部极端干旱事件发生概率增加. 该研究表明, 人为强迫通过调制气候平均背景场从而引起极端事件发生频次的变化是人类活动影响极端气候事件的重要途径之一.

An Investigation of the Effective Climate Sensitivity in GFDL’s New Climate Models CM4.0 and SPEAR

Abstract Despite a relatively low climate sensitivity indicated by atmospheric-only simulations with uniform sea surface temperature (SST) warming, GFDL’s new climate model CM4.0 participating in CMIP6 and the seasonal-to-decadal prediction system SPEAR, both of which use an identical atmospheric model AM4.0, produce relatively high effective climate sensitivity (EffCS). The substantial increase in CM4.0’s EffCS is found to be caused by additional positive forcing associated with the CO2 fertilization effect on vegetation, enhanced positive feedback due to stronger reduction in Southern Hemisphere (SH) sea ice concentration (SIC), and clouds whose feedback depends on SST warming patterns. Compared to a SPEAR run using a static vegetation model (SPEAR-SV), CM4.0 produces roughly 30% larger EffCS, among which roughly 1/3 of the increase is due to dynamical vegetation with the rest due primarily to changes in SIC. Although cloud feedback does not explain the key feedback differences among CM4.0, SPEAR, and SPEAR-SV, it is the primary cause of the models’ increase (less negative) in TOA net feedback during the later period of their quadrupling CO2 simulations due to changes in their SST warming patterns. Moreover, CM4.0’s SST warming pattern and its effects on cloud feedback appear to be the leading cause of CM4.0’s EffCS increase compared to the earlier generation GFDL model ESM2M, which produces one of the lowest EffCS values among CMIP5 models. In comparison, CM4.0’s enhanced reduction in SH SICs plays a slightly less important role in its increase in EffCS compared to ESM2M.

Understanding the Eastward Shift and Intensification of the ENSO Teleconnection Over South Pacific and Antarctica Under Greenhouse Warming

The Pacific–South America (PSA) teleconnection pattern triggered by the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is suggested to be moving eastward and intensifying under global warming. However, the underlying mechanism is not completely understood. Previous studies have proposed that the movement of the PSA teleconnection pattern is attributable to the eastward shift of the tropical Pacific ENSO-driven rainfall anomalies in response to the projected El Niño-like sea surface temperature (SST) warming pattern. In this study, we found that with uniform warming, models will also simulate an eastward movement of the PSA teleconnection pattern, without the impact of the uneven SST warming pattern. Further investigation reveals that future changes in the climatology of the atmospheric circulation, particularly the movement of the exit region of the subtropical jet stream, can also contribute to the eastward shift of the PSA teleconnection pattern by modifying the conversion of mean kinetic energy to eddy kinetic energy.

Contrasting Observed Atmospheric Responses to Tropical Sea Surface Temperature Warming Patterns

AbstractEquilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) is a theoretical concept which describes the change in global mean surface temperature that results from a sustained doubling of atmospheric CO2. Current ECS estimates range from ∼1.8 to 5.6 K, reflecting uncertainties in climate feedbacks. The sensitivity of the lower (1,000–700 hPa) and upper (500–200 hPa) troposphere to changes in spatial patterns of tropical sea surface temperature (SST) have been proposed by recent model studies as key feedbacks controlling climate sensitivity. We examine empirical evidence for these proposed mechanisms using 14 years of satellite data. We examine the response of temperature and humidity profiles, clouds, and top‐of‐the‐atmosphere radiation to relative warming in tropical ocean regions when there is either strong convection or subsidence. We find warmer SSTs in regions of strong subsidence are coincident with a decrease in lower tropospheric stability (−0.9 ± 0.4 KK−1) and low cloud cover (∼−6% K−1). This leads to a warming associated with the weakening in the shortwave cooling effect of clouds (4.2 ± 1.9 Wm−2K−1), broadly consistent with model calculations. In contrast, warmer SSTs in regions of strong convection are coincident with an increase in upper tropospheric humidity (3.2 ± 1.5% K−1). In this scenario, the dominant effect is the enhancement of the warming longwave cloud radiative effect (3.8 ± 3.0 Wm−2K−1) from an increase in high cloud cover (∼7% K−1), though changes in the net (longwave and shortwave) effect are not statistically significant (p < 0.003). Our observational evidence supports the existence of mechanisms linking contrasting atmospheric responses to patterns in SST, mechanisms which have been linked to climate sensitivity.

Fast adjustment versus slow SST-mediated response of daily precipitation statistics to abrupt 4xCO2

Projected changes in global to regional precipitation remain highly model-dependent and are driven by both fast atmospheric adjustments and slower ocean-mediated responses to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases. Understanding the relative influence of these multiple drivers is one of the main objectives of the Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project. Here the focus is on the daily precipitation response to an abrupt quadrupling of atmospheric CO2, as simulated by the CNRM-CM6-1 global climate model. Extended atmosphere-only experiments with prescribed sea surface temperature (SST) are used to decompose the precipitation changes into separate responses to uniform SST warming, the pattern of SST anomalies, as well as fast radiative and physiological CO2 effects. The uniform SST warming dominates the global and regional changes in annual mean and annual maximum daily precipitation intensity. In contrast, the annual mean number of wet days and the annual maximum of consecutive dry days show a strong fast adjustment. They are also sensitive to the SST warming pattern that strongly influences changes in large-scale circulation. The increase in daily precipitation intensity drives the global-mean magnitude of the annual precipitation change. In contrast, the response of wet day frequency shapes the geographical distribution and interannual variability of the annual mean precipitation, especially in the subtropics, and is more sensitive to changes in near-surface relative humidity than in the total water column over land. Although the annual precipitation response does not seem highly sensitive to the base state, these results deserve further investigation and model intercomparison within CFMIP.

Equatorial Pacific Warming Attenuated by SST Warming Patterns in the Tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans

AbstractMost climate models project an enhanced mean sea surface temperature (SST) warming in the equatorial Pacific and Atlantic, and a zonal SST dipole in the Indian Ocean. The remote influences of these SST change patterns remain uncertain. To examine the extent to which the patterns of SST changes in the tropical Indian and Atlantic Oceans modulate the warming in the tropical Pacific Ocean, we compare nudging experiments with prescribed structured and uniform SST changes in the tropics outside the Pacific. We find that the warming patterns in the tropical Indian and Atlantic Oceans, respectively, drive a canonical La Niña‐like and elongated equatorial cooling through the Bjerknes feedback, acting to attenuate the warming in the equatorial Pacific substantially. The different SST cooling responses emanate from subtle differences between the initial wind forcing driven by the two basins' SST change patterns. These results have significant implications for future climate change projections.

Seasonal Dependency of Tropical Precipitation Change under Global Warming

AbstractTropical precipitation change under global warming varies with season. The present study investigates the characteristics and cause of the seasonality in rainfall change. Diagnostically, tropical precipitation change is decomposed into thermodynamic and dynamic components. The thermodynamic component represents the wet-get-wetter effect and its seasonality is due mostly to that in the mean vertical velocity, especially in the monsoon regions. The dynamic component includes the warmer-get-wetter effect due to the spatial variations in sea surface temperature (SST) warming, while the seasonality is due to that of the climatological SST and can be largely reproduced by an atmospheric model forced with the monthly climatological SST plus the annual-mean SST warming pattern. In the eastern equatorial Pacific where the SST warming is locally enhanced; for example, rainfall increases only during the March–May season when the climatological SST is high enough for deep convection. To the extent that the seasonality of tropical precipitation change over oceans arises mostly from that of the climatological SST, the results support the notion that reducing model biases in climatology improves regional rainfall projections.

Different Responses of Tropical Cyclone Tracks Over the Western North Pacific and North Atlantic to Two Distinct Sea Surface Temperature Warming Patterns

AbstractHow future tropical cyclone (TC) activity could change under global warming is enormously important to society, which has been widely assessed using state‐of‐the‐art climate models. However, these models were predominantly based on projection of an El Niño‐like warming pattern. Recent studies suggested that a La Niña‐like warming pattern is also possible. Here we compare the responses of TC track density (TCTD) over the western North Pacific and North Atlantic to the two distinct global warming patterns. We find that the La Niña‐like warming pattern reduces western North Pacific TCTD except in the South China Sea and along China coast and increases NA TCTD, while the El Niño‐like warming pattern generally reduces TCTD in both basins. This is due to different responses of large‐scale dynamic/thermodynamic conditions to the distinct zonal sea surface temperature gradients associated with the two warming patterns. These results help better understand potential future change in TC tracks.

Changes in the sensitivity of tropical rainfall response to local sea surface temperature anomalies under global warming

AbstractChanges in tropical rainfall variability under global warming are crucial to rainfall changes induced by tropical sea surface temperature (SST) variability modes, which exerts severe influences on human society and the natural environment. As the main factor influencing tropical rainfall variability, changes in the sensitivity of tropical rainfall response to local SST anomalies under global warming remain unclear. This study reveals its two dominant spatial features based on the multi‐model ensemble mean result from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. The sensitivity of tropical rainfall response to SST anomalies is enhanced in the equatorial central–eastern Pacific, and exhibits a positive Indian Ocean dipole‐like pattern in the Indian Ocean. A simplified moisture budget decomposition shows that such change is composed of the thermodynamic effect induced by the increase in mean‐state moisture and the dynamic effect induced by the changes in the sensitivity of atmospheric circulation response to SST anomalies. When the thermodynamic effect, displaying a ‘wet‐get‐wetter’ paradigm, is basically offset with a part of the dynamic effect by the general weakening of atmospheric circulation response to SST anomalies under global warming, changes in the sensitivity of rainfall response to SST anomalies is dominated by a residual dynamic effect that reflects the roles of two factors: the spatially non‐uniform SST warming and the climatological SST. As a result, the ‘warmer‐get‐wetter’ paradigm is more important to changes in the sensitivity of rainfall rasponse to SST anomalies than to climatological rainfall changes. Moreover, the non‐uniform SST warming pattern and the climatological SST are also important sources of intermodel uncertainty in the changes of sensitivity of rainfall rasponse to SST anomalies.

Ocean warming pattern effects on future changes in East Asian atmospheric rivers

Atmospheric rivers (ARs), intense water vapor transports associated with extra-tropical cyclones, frequently bring heavy rainfalls over mid-latitudes. Over East Asia, landfalling ARs result in major socio-economic impacts including widespread floods and landslides; for example, western Japan heavy rainfall in July 2018 killed more than 200 people. Using results of high-resolution atmospheric model ensemble simulations, we examine projected future change in summertime AR frequency over East Asia. Different sea surface temperature (SST) warming patterns derived from six atmosphere–ocean coupled model simulations were assumed to represent uncertainty in future SST projections. The rate of increase in the frequency of landfalling ARs over summertime East Asia is on average 0.9% K–1 and is dependent on SST warming patterns. Stronger warming over the North Indian Ocean and South China Sea or weaker warming over the tropical central Pacific produce more frequent landfalling ARs over East Asia. These patterns are similar to the co-variability of SST, atmospheric circulation, and ARs over the western North Pacific found on the interannual time scale. The results of this study suggest that the natural disaster risk related to landfalling ARs should increase over East Asia under global warming and SSTs over the Indo-Pacific region holds the key for a quantitative projection.

Future Changes in Tropical Cyclone Activity in High‐Resolution Large‐Ensemble Simulations

AbstractProjected future changes in global tropical cyclone (TC) activity are assessed using 5,000 year scale ensemble simulations for both current and 4 K surface warming climates with a 60 km global atmospheric model. The global number of TCs decreases by 33% in the future projection. Although geographical TC occurrences decrease generally, they increase in the central and eastern parts of the extra tropical North Pacific. Meanwhile, very intense (category 4 and 5) TC occurrences increase over a broader area including the south of Japan and south of Madagascar. The global number of category 4 and 5 TCs significantly decreases, contrary to the increase seen in several previous studies. Lifetime maximum surface wind speeds and precipitation rate are amplified globally. Regional TC activity changes have large uncertainty corresponding to sea surface temperature warming patterns. TC‐resolving large‐ensemble simulations provide useful information, especially for policy making related to future climate change.

Comparison of two Centennial-scale Sea Surface Temperature Datasets in the Regional Climate Change Studies of the China Seas

Two widely used sea surface temperature (SST) datasets are compared in this article. We examine characteristics in the climate variability of SST in the China Seas.Two series yielded almost the same warming trend for 1890-2013 (0.7-0.8°C/100 years). However, HadISST1 series shows much stronger warming trends during 1961-2013 and 1981-2013 than that of COBE SST2 series. The disagreement between data sets was marked after 1981. For the hiatus period 1998-2013, the cooling trends of HadISST1 series is much lower than that of COBE SST2. These differences between the two datasets are possibly caused by the different observations which are incorporated to fill with data-sparse regions since 1982. Those findings illustrate that there are some uncertainties in the estimate of SST warming patterns in certain regions. The results also indicate that the temporal and spatial deficiency of observed data is still the biggest handicap for analyzing multi-scale SST characteristics in regional area.

On the influence of simulated SST warming on rainfall projections in the Indo-Pacific domain: an AGCM study

Significant uncertainty exists in regional climate change projections, particularly for rainfall and other hydro-climate variables. In this study, we conduct a series of Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM) experiments with different future sea surface temperature (SST) warming simulated by a range of coupled climate models. They allow us to assess the extent to which uncertainty from current coupled climate model rainfall projections can be attributed to their simulated SST warming. Nine CMIP5 model-simulated global SST warming anomalies have been super-imposed onto the current SSTs simulated by the Australian climate model ACCESS1.3. The ACCESS1.3 SST-forced experiments closely reproduce rainfall means and interannual variations as in its own fully coupled experiments. Although different global SST warming intensities explain well the inter-model difference in global mean precipitation changes, at regional scales the SST influence vary significantly. SST warming explains about 20–25% of the patterns of precipitation changes in each of the four/five models in its rainfall projections over the oceans in the Indo-Pacific domain, but there are also a couple of models in which different SST warming explains little of their precipitation pattern changes. The influence is weaker again for rainfall changes over land. Roughly similar levels of contribution can be attributed to different atmospheric responses to SST warming in these models. The weak SST influence in our study could be due to the experimental setup applied: superimposing different SST warming anomalies onto the same SSTs simulated for current climate by ACCESS1.3 rather than directly using model-simulated past and future SSTs. Similar modelling and analysis from other modelling groups with more carefully designed experiments are needed to tease out uncertainties caused by different SST warming patterns, different SST mean biases and different model physical/dynamical responses to the same underlying SST forcing.

Interannual variability of western North Pacific SST anomalies and its impact on North Pacific and North America

In this study, the interannual variability of sea surface temperature (SST) and its atmospheric teleconnection over the western North Pacific (WNP) toward the North Pacific/North America during boreal winter are investigated. First, we defined the WNP mode as the first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) mode of SST anomalies over the WNP region (100–165°E, 0–35°N), of which the principle component time-series are significantly correlated with several well-known climate modes such as the warm pool mode which is the second EOF mode of the tropical to North Pacific SST anomalies, North Pacific oscillation (NPO), North Pacific gyre oscillation (NPGO), and central Pacific (CP)-El Nino at 95% confidence level, but not correlated with the eastern Pacific (EP)-El Nino. The warm phase of the WNP mode (sea surface warming) is initiated by anomalous southerly winds through reduction of wind speed with the background of northerly mean winds over the WNP during boreal winter, i.e., reduced evaporative cooling. Meanwhile, the atmospheric response to the SST warming pattern and its diabatic heating further enhance the southerly wind anomaly, referred to the wind–evaporation–SST (WES) feedback. Thus, the WNP mode is developed and maintained through winter until spring, when the northerly mean wind disappears. Furthermore, it is also known that anomalous upper-level divergence associated with WNP mode leads to the NPO-like structure over the North Pacific and the east–west pressure contrast pattern over the North America through Rossby wave propagation, impacting the climate over the North Pacific and North America.