SST Forcing Research Articles

Circulation Regimes: Chaotic Variability versus SST-Forced Predictability

Abstract The circulation regimes in the Pacific–North American region are studied using the NCEP–NCAR reanalyses for the 18-winter period (1981/82–1998/99; NCEP18) and for the 54-winter period (1948/49–2001/02; NCEP54). The sampling properties of the regimes are estimated using very large ensembles (of size 55) of winter simulations made for the NCEP18 period with the atmospheric general circulation model of the Center for Ocean–Land–Atmosphere Studies, forced by observed SST and sea ice. The regimes are identified using a modified version of the k-means method. From the NCEP54 dataset a set of four clusters was found [i.e., the Alaskan ridge (AR), Arctic low (AL), Pacific trough (PT), and the Arctic high (AH)], which are significant (vis-à-vis a multinormal background), and more reproducible (within randomly chosen half-length samples) than would be expected from a multinormal process. The frequency of occurrence of the PT (AH) has increased (decreased) significantly during the past two decades. The PT cluster obtained from NCEP18 dataset more closely resembles the El Niño–forced seasonal mean pattern of recent decades than it does the traditional PNA. The GCM simulates the AR, AL, and PT clusters (but not the AH). The simulated AR and PT patterns have errors (cf. the NCEP18 results), which are outside the range of internal variability. The simulated frequency of occurrence agrees with the NCEP18 results within sampling variability. The differences in cluster properties of the PT and AR regimes between the NCEP18 and NCEP54 datasets are due to changes in SST forcing, not sampling error. Year-to-year changes in the frequency of occurrence of the PT, AL, and AR clusters in the simulations and the NCEP18 dataset are generally consistent with each other.

Climate Response to Basin-Scale Warming and Cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean

Abstract Using experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model, the climate impacts of a basin-scale warming or cooling of the North Atlantic Ocean are investigated. Multidecadal fluctuations with this pattern were observed during the twentieth century, and similar variations—but with larger amplitude—are believed to have occurred in the more distant past. It is found that in all seasons the response to warming the North Atlantic is strongest, in the sense of highest signal-to-noise ratio, in the Tropics. However there is a large seasonal cycle in the climate impacts. The strongest response is found in boreal summer and is associated with suppressed precipitation and elevated temperatures over the lower-latitude parts of North and South America. In August–September–October there is a significant reduction in the vertical shear in the main development region for Atlantic hurricanes. In winter and spring, temperature anomalies over land in the extratropics are governed by dynamical changes in circulation rather than simply reflecting a thermodynamic response to the warming or cooling of the ocean. The tropical climate response is primarily forced by the tropical SST anomalies, and the major features are in line with simple models of the tropical circulation response to diabatic heating anomalies. The extratropical climate response is influenced both by tropical and higher-latitude SST anomalies and exhibits nonlinear sensitivity to the sign of the SST forcing. Comparisons with multidecadal changes in sea level pressure observed in the twentieth century support the conclusion that the impact of North Atlantic SST change is most important in summer, but also suggest a significant influence in lower latitudes in autumn and winter. Significant climate impacts are not restricted to the Atlantic basin, implying that the Atlantic Ocean could be an important driver of global decadal variability. The strongest remote impacts are found to occur in the tropical Pacific region in June–August and September–November. Surface anomalies in this region have the potential to excite coupled ocean–atmosphere feedbacks, which are likely to play an important role in shaping the ultimate climate response.

The relative influence of soil moisture and SST in climate predictability explored within ensembles of AMIP type experiments

Three ensembles of AMIP-type simulations using the Arpege-climat coupled land–atmosphere model have been designed to assess the relative influence of SST and soil moisture (SM) on climate variability and predictability. The study takes advantage of the GSWP2 land surface reanalysis covering the 1986–1995 period. The GSWP2 forcings have been used to derive a global SM climatology that is fully consistent with the model used in this study. One ensemble of ten simulations has been forced by climatological SST and the simulated SM is relaxed toward the GSWP2 reanalysis. Another ensemble has been forced by observed SST and SM is evolving freely. The last ensemble combines the observed SST forcing and the relaxation toward GSWP2. Two complementary aspects of the predictability have been explored, the potential predictability (analysis of variance) and the effective predictability (skill score). An analysis of variance has revealed the effects of the SST and SM boundary forcings on the variability and potential predictability of near-surface temperature, precipitation and surface evaporation. While in the tropics SST anomalies clearly maintain a potentially predictable variability throughout the annual cycle, in the mid-latitudes the SST forced variability is only dominant in winter and SM plays a leading role in summer. In a similar fashion, the annual cycle of the hindcast skill (evaluated as the anomalous correlation coefficient of the three ensemble means with respect to the “observations”) indicates that the SST forcing is the dominant contributor over the tropical continents and in the winter mid-latitudes but that SM is supporting a significant part of the skill in the summer mid-latitudes. Focusing on boreal summer, we have then investigated different aspects of the SM and SST contribution to climate variations in terms of spatial distribution and time-evolution. Our experiments suggest that SM is potentially an additional source of climate predictability. A realistic initialization of SM and a proper representation of the land–atmosphere feedbacks seem necessary to improve state-of-the-art dynamical seasonal predictions, but will be actually efficient only in the areas where SM anomalies are themselves predictable at the monthly to seasonal timescale (since remote effects of SM are probably much more limited than SST teleconnections).

Interactive Feedback between ENSO and the Indian Ocean

Abstract A feedback process of the Indian Ocean SST on ENSO is investigated by using observed data and atmospheric GCM. It is suggested that warming in the Indian Ocean produces an easterly wind stress anomaly over Indonesia and the western edge of the Pacific during the mature phase of El Niño. The anomalous easterly wind in the western Pacific during El Niño helps a rapid termination of El Niño and a fast transition to La Niña by generating upwelling Kelvin waves. Thus, warming in the Indian Ocean, which is a part of the El Niño signal, operates as a negative feedback mechanism to ENSO. This Indian Ocean feedback appears to operate mostly for relatively strong El Niños and results in a La Niña one year after the mature phase of the El Niño. This 1-yr period of phase transition implies a possible role of Indian Ocean–ENSO coupling in the biennial tendency of the ENSO. Atmospheric GCM experiments show that Indian Ocean SST forcing is mostly responsible for the easterly wind anomalies in the western Pacific.

The Annular Response to Tropical Pacific SST Forcing

Abstract The leading pattern of Northern Hemisphere winter height variability exhibits an annular structure, one related to tropical west Pacific heating. To explore whether this pattern can be excited by tropical Pacific SST variations, an atmospheric general circulation model coupled to a slab mixed layer ocean is employed. Ensemble experiments with an idealized SST anomaly centered at different longitudes on the equator are conducted. The results reveal two different response patterns—a hemispheric pattern projecting on the annular mode and a meridionally arched pattern confined to the Pacific–North American sector, induced by the SST anomaly in the west and the east Pacific, respectively. Extratropical air–sea coupling enhances the annular component of response to the tropical west Pacific SST anomalies. A diagnosis based on linear dynamical models suggests that the two responses are primarily maintained by transient eddy forcing. In both cases, the model transient eddy forcing response has a maximum near the exit of the Pacific jet, but with a different meridional position relative to the upper-level jet. The emergence of an annular response is found to be very sensitive to whether transient eddy forcing anomalies occur within the axis of the jet core. For forcing within the jet core, energy propagates poleward and downstream, inducing an annular response. For forcing away from the jet core, energy propagates equatorward and downstream, inducing a trapped regional response. The selection of an annular versus a regionally confined tropospheric response is thus postulated to depend on how the storm tracks respond. Tropical west Pacific SST forcing is particularly effective in exciting the required storm-track response from which a hemisphere-wide teleconnection structure emerges.

The Physical Properties of the Atmosphere in the New Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model (HadGEM1). Part II: Aspects of Variability and Regional Climate

Abstract The performance of the atmospheric component of the new Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model (HadGEM1) is assessed in terms of its ability to represent a selection of key aspects of variability in the Tropics and extratropics. These include midlatitude storm tracks and blocking activity, synoptic variability over Europe, and the North Atlantic Oscillation together with tropical convection, the Madden–Julian oscillation, and the Asian summer monsoon. Comparisons with the previous model, the Third Hadley Centre Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere GCM (HadCM3), demonstrate that there has been a considerable increase in the transient eddy kinetic energy (EKE), bringing HadGEM1 into closer agreement with current reanalyses. This increase in EKE results from the increased horizontal resolution and, in combination with the improved physical parameterizations, leads to improvements in the representation of Northern Hemisphere storm tracks and blocking. The simulation of synoptic weather regimes over Europe is also greatly improved compared to HadCM3, again due to both increased resolution and other model developments. The variability of convection in the equatorial region is generally stronger and closer to observations than in HadCM3. There is, however, still limited convective variance coincident with several of the observed equatorial wave modes. Simulation of the Madden–Julian oscillation is improved in HadGEM1: both the activity and interannual variability are increased and the eastward propagation, although slower than observed, is much better simulated. While some aspects of the climatology of the Asian summer monsoon are improved in HadGEM1, the upper-level winds are too weak and the simulation of precipitation deteriorates. The dominant modes of monsoon interannual variability are similar in the two models, although in HadCM3 this is linked to SST forcing, while in HadGEM1 internal variability dominates. Overall, analysis of the phenomena considered here indicates that HadGEM1 performs well and, in many important respects, improves upon HadCM3. Together with the improved representation of the mean climate, this improvement in the simulation of atmospheric variability suggests that HadGEM1 provides a sound basis for future studies of climate and climate change.

Increased Occurrence of Stratospheric Sudden Warmings during El Niño as Simulated by WACCM

Abstract Experiments with Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) under perpetual January conditions indicate that stratospheric sudden warmings (SSWs) are twice as likely to occur in El Niño winters than in La Niña winters, in basic agreement with the limited observational dataset. Tropical SST anomalies that mimic El Niño and La Niña lead to changes in the shape of probability distribution functions (PDFs) of stratospheric day-to-day variability, resulting in a warmer pole and weaker vortex on average for El Niño conditions. The tropical SST forcing induces a response similar to the observed response in the enhancement of the planetary wave of zonal wavenumber 1 (wave 1) and the weakening of wave 2 in the upper troposphere and stratosphere of high latitudes. The enhanced wave 1 contributes to a shift of the PDFs of poleward eddy heat flux in the lower stratosphere, or wave forcing entering the stratosphere. The shift of the PDFs includes an increase of strong wave events that induce more frequent SSWs.

Observations of SST, heat flux and North Atlantic Ocean‐atmosphere interaction

The relationship between the observed North Atlantic atmosphere and the forcing of SST and heat flux is investigated using the lagged MCA analysis. The dominant heat flux forcing to the North Atlantic Oscillation is associated with the later summer horseshoe SST forcing. The horseshoe SST is generated largely by the surface heat flux, and then forces the early winter atmosphere through the release of oceanic heat flux into the atmosphere. Independent of the horseshoe SST, there is no significant heat flux forcing on the atmosphere with a lead of longer than 1 month.

Mechanisms for Lagged Atmospheric Response to ENSO SST Forcing*

Abstract The mechanism and sensitivity of the lagged response of tropical tropospheric temperature to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) SST forcing are examined using the Quasi-Equilibrium Tropical Circulation Model (QTCM) coupled to a slab mixed layer ocean model, along with a simple analytical model. It is found that the lag and amplitude of tropospheric temperature response depend on mixed layer depth (MLD), ENSO SST forcing period, areal fraction of the mixed layer ocean, and the strength of Tropics to midlatitude transports. The phase lag is not a monotonic function of mixed layer depth. It maximizes at moderate MLD and, thus, is not very sensitive to MLD in the realistic range. The phase lag asymptotes to values determined by free-atmospheric time scales, between 1 and 2 months, for small or large values of MLD. The amplitude of the tropospheric temperature response decreases with increasing MLD. The phase lag and amplitude of tropospheric temperature both increase as a specified ENSO SST forcing period increases and they appear to be rather insensitive to the seasonal cycle of SST. On the other hand, the phase lag and amplitude of mixed layer ocean SST change monotonically with MLD and ENSO forcing period, with a deeper mixed layer producing longer lag and smaller amplitude of SST anomalies. Longer ENSO SST forcing periods correspond to longer lag and larger amplitude of mixed layer ocean SST anomalies. While the ENSO region convective heating (precipitation) anomalies are closely tied to SST anomalies, the tropical mean precipitation seems best viewed as a complex by-product of the response rather than as a driver. One useful parameter determining the lag of tropospheric temperature to ENSO SST is the freedecay time scale of the coupled system. This parameter combines the effects of surface flux exchanges, heat loss at the top of the atmosphere and from the Tropics to midlatitudes, and finite ocean heat capacity. It is indicative of the extent to which the lagged response of tropical tropospheric temperature to ENSO SST is a coupled phenomenon. Overall, the contribution of coupling to SST outside the ENSO region substantially increases the amplitude and lag of the tropospheric temperature response to ENSO.

Linearity of the Atmospheric Response to North Atlantic SST and Sea Ice Anomalies

Abstract The observations of the ocean–atmosphere–sea ice have recently revealed that the oceanic surfaces can have a subtle but significant impact on the atmospheric long-term fluctuations. Low-frequency variations and long-term trends of the North Atlantic atmospheric circulation have been partly related to particular SST and sea ice features. In this work, the influence of typical tripolar SST and dipolar sea ice anomalies in the North Atlantic–Arctic on the atmosphere is investigated. A large ensemble of AGCM simulations forced by three different anomalous boundary conditions (SST, sea ice, and SST + sea ice) are used. The linearity of the simulated response in the winter season is particularly assessed. In these experiments, while the winter low-level temperature response is mainly symmetric about the sign of the forcing, the asymmetric part of the geopotential response is substantial. The sea ice forcing maintains a baroclinic response with a strong temperature anomaly in the vicinity of the forcing but with a weak vertical penetration. The SST maintains an NAO-like equivalent barotropic temperature and geopotential height response that extends throughout the troposphere. It is also shown that the combination of the two forcings is mainly linear for the low-level temperature and nonlinear for the geopotential height. While the SST forcing seems to be the main contributor to the total temperature and geopotential height responses, the sea ice forcing appears to introduce significant nonlinear perturbations.

Regional atmospheric response to tropical Pacific SST perturbations

[1] An extended domain limited area model was implemented for seasonal-range simulations to assess the effect of tropical Pacific SST perturbations on weather patterns over Europe and Mediterranean. The experimental method consisted of Skiron/Eta model integrations with coarse and fine grid increment using artificially-modified as well as analysis SST forcing. The selected period was August–October 1997. Model simulations with coarse grid increment produced a weak signal in the precipitation pattern and the synoptic scale circulation over Europe, implying a damping of the North Atlantic atmospheric response to the tropical Pacific SST perturbation. Fine resolution experiments suggested an amplified dynamic response providing a direct link between tropical Pacific SST and North Atlantic synoptic circulation. The output signal is mainly attributed to the effective representation of the regional/mesoscale atmospheric features due to the model implementation with a fine mesh grid.

Remote and Local SST Forcing in Shaping Asian-Australian Monsoon Anomalies

The most striking feature of the Asian-Australian monsoon associated with the El Nino tele- connection is the evolution of anomalous anticyclones over the western North Pacific (WNP) and south- east Indian Ocean (SIO). In this study we investigated the relative role of remote and local SST forcing in shaping the monsoon anomalies with an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM). Four ideal- ized AGCM experiments were designed to isolate the effect of anomalous SST forcing from the tropical eastern Pacific, tropical western Pacific and tropical Indian Ocean. In the first experiment observed SST is specified in the tropical eastern Pacific, while climatological monthly mean SST is specified elsewhere. In the second experiment the observed SST is specified in the tropical western Pacific only. In the third experiment realistic SST is specified in both the tropical Indian Ocean and eastern Pacific. In the fourth experiment the observed SST is specified across the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans. Our numerical experiments indicate that the anomalous anticyclone in the WNP is initiated by local SST anomaly (SSTA) forcing in northern fall, and further maintained by both the remote (El Nino) and local SSTA forcing. The initiation of the anomalous anticyclone over the SIO is primarily attributed to the local SSTA, though the remote forcing from the eastern Pacific also plays a role, particularly in 1997. The numerical experiments reveal a seasonal-dependent character of inter-basin teleconnection between the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, this is, the Indian Ocean SSTA exerts a significant impact on the western Pacific wind in northern summer and fall of the El Nino developing year, whereas the eastern Pacific SSTA has a greater impact on the Indian Ocean wind during the mature phase of the El Nino (boreal winter), even though the central Pacific heating is stronger in boreal summer. A special feature for 1997-98 El Nino is that the meridional wind anomaly over the Indian Ocean in DJF is primarily driven by local SSTA forcing, while the zonal wind component is forced by the remote SSTA in the east- ern Pacific.

Decadal variability of rainfall in the Sahel: results from the coupled GENESIS-IBIS atmosphere-biosphere model

In this study we investigate the impact of large-scale oceanic forcing and local vegetation feedback on the variability of the Sahel rainfall using a global biosphere-atmosphere model, the coupled GENESIS-IBIS model, running at two different resolutions. The observed global sea surface temperature in the twentieth century is used as the primary model forcing. Using this coupled global model, we experiment on treating vegetation as a static boundary condition and as a dynamic component of the Earth climate system. When vegetation is dynamic, the R30-resolution model realistically reproduces the multi-decadal scale fluctuation of rainfall in the Sahel region; keeping vegetation static in the same model results in a rainfall regime characterized by fluctuations at much shorter time scales, indicating that vegetation dynamics act as a mechanism for persistence of the regional climate. Even when vegetation dynamics is included, the R15 model fails to capture the main characteristics of the long-term rainfall variability due to the exaggerated atmospheric internal variability in the coarse resolution model. Regardless how vegetation is treated and what model resolution is used, conditions in the last three decades of the twentieth century are always drier than normal in the Sahel, suggesting that global oceanic forcing during that period favors the occurrence of a drought. Vegetation dynamics is found to enhance the severity of this drought. However, with both the observed global SST forcing and feedback from dynamic vegetation in the model, the simulated drought is still not as persistent as that observed. This indicates that anthropogenic land cover changes, a mechanism missing in the model, may have contributed to the occurrence of the twentieth century drought in the Sahel.

Atmospheric Response to North Pacific SST: The Role ofOcean–Atmosphere Coupling*

Atmospheric response to a midlatitude winter SST anomaly is studied in a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model. The role of ocean–atmosphere coupling is examined with ensemble experiments of different coupling configurations. The atmospheric response is found to depend critically on ocean–atmosphere coupling. The full coupling experiment produces the strongest warm-ridge response and agrees the best with a statistical estimation of the atmospheric response. The fixed SST experiment and the thermodynamic coupling experiment also generate a warm-ridge response, but with a substantially weaker magnitude. This weaker warm-ridge response is associated with an excessive heat flux into the atmosphere, which tends to force an anomalous warm- low response and, therefore, weakens the warm-ridge response of the full coupling experiment. This study suggests that the atmospheric response is associated with both the SST and heat flux. The SST forcing favors a warm-ridge response, while the heat flux forcing tends to be associated with a warm-low response. The correct atmospheric response is generated in the fully coupled model that produces the correct combination of SST and heat flux naturally.

The Effects of North Atlantic SST and Sea Ice Anomalies on the Winter Circulation in CCM3. Part II: Direct and Indirect Components of the Response

The wintertime atmospheric circulation responses to observed patterns of North Atlantic sea surface temperature and sea ice cover trends in recent decades are studied by means of experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model. Here the relationship between the forced responses and the dominant pattern of internally generated atmospheric variability is focused on. The total response is partioned into a portion that projects onto the leading mode of internal variability (the indirect response) and a portion that is the residual from that projection (the direct response). This empirical decomposition yields physically meaningful patterns whose distinctive horizontal and vertical structures imply different governing mechanisms. The indirect response, which dominates the total geopotential height response, is hemispheric in scale with resemblance to the North Atlantic Oscillation or Northern Hemisphere annular mode, and equivalent barotropic in the vertical from the surface to the tropopause. In contrast, the direct response is localized to the vicinity of the surface thermal anomaly (SST or sea ice) and exhibits a baroclinic structure in the vertical, with a surface trough and upper-level ridge in the case of a positive heating anomaly, consistent with theoretical models of the linear baroclinic response to extratropical thermal forcing. Both components of the response scale linearly with respect to the amplitude of the forcing but nonlinearly with respect to the polarity of the forcing. The deeper vertical penetration of anomalous heating compared to cooling is suggested to play a role in the nonlinearity of the response to SST forcing.

Predictability Experiments for the Asian Summer Monsoon: Impact of SST Anomalies on Interannual and Intraseasonal Variability

Abstract The effects of SST anomalies on the interannual and intraseasonal variability of the Asian summer monsoon have been studied by multivariate statistical analyses of 850-hPa wind and rainfall fields simulated in a set of ensemble integrations of the ECMWF atmospheric GCM—Predictability Experiments for the Indian Summer Monsoon (PRISM) experiments. The simulations used observed SSTs (PRISM-O), covering 9 yr, characterized by large variations of the ENSO phenomenon in the 1980s and the early 1990s. A parallel set of simulations was also performed with climatological SSTs (PRISM-C), thus enabling the influence of SST forcing on the modes of interannual and intraseasonal variability to be investigated. As in observations, the model's interannual variability is dominated by a zonally oriented mode, which describes the north–south movement of the tropical convergence zone (TCZ). This mode appears to be independent of SST forcing, and its robustness between the PRISM-O and PRISM-C simulations suggests tha...

Heavy Daily Precipitation Frequency over the Contiguous United States: Sources of Climatic Variability and Seasonal Predictability

By matching large-scale patterns in climate fields with patterns in observed station precipitation, this work explores seasonal predictability of precipitation in the contiguous United States for all seasons. Although it is shown that total seasonal precipitation and frequencies of less-than-extreme daily precipitation events can be predicted with much higher skill, the focus of this study is on frequencies of daily precipitation above the seasonal 90th percentile (P90), a variable whose skillful prediction is more challenging. Frequency of heavy daily precipitation is shown to respond to ENSO as well as to non-ENSO interannual and interdecadal variability in the North Pacific. Specification skill achieved by a statistical model based on contemporaneous SST forcing with and without an explicit dynamical atmosphere is compared and contrasted. Statistical models relating the SST forcing patterns directly to observed station precipitation are shown to perform consistently better in all seasons than hybrid (dynamical–statistical) models where the SST forcing is first translated to atmospheric circulation via three separate general circulation models and the dynamically computed circulation anomalies are statistically related to observed precipitation. Skill is summarized for all seasons, but in detail for January–February–March, when it is shown that predictable patterns are spatially robust regardless of the approach used. Predictably, much of the skill is due to ENSO. While the U.S. average skill is modest, regional skill levels can be quite high. It is also found that non-ENSO-related skill is significant, especially for the extreme Southwest and that this is due mostly to non-ENSO interannual and decadal variability in the North Pacific SST forcing. Although useful specification skill is achieved by both approaches, hybrid predictability is not pursued further in this effort. Rather, prognostic analysis is carried out with the purely statistical approach to analyze P90 predictability based on antecedent SST forcing. Skill at various lead times is investigated and it is shown that significant regional skill can be achieved at lead times of several months even in the absence of strong ENSO forcing.

Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Dynamical Processes in the Tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans and the TBO

Abstract The transitions (from relatively strong to relatively weak monsoon) in the tropospheric biennial oscillation (TBO) occur in northern spring for the south Asian or Indian monsoon and northern fall for the Australian monsoon involving coupled land–atmosphere–ocean processes over a large area of the Indo-Pacific region. Transitions from March–May (MAM) to June–September (JJAS) tend to set the system for the next year, with a transition to the opposite sign the following year. Previous analyses of observed data and GCM sensitivity experiments have demonstrated that the TBO (with roughly a 2–3-yr period) encompasses most ENSO years (with their well-known biennial tendency). In addition, there are other years, including many Indian Ocean dipole (or zonal mode) events, that contribute to biennial transitions. Results presented here from observations for composites of TBO evolution confirm earlier results that the Indian and Pacific SST forcings are more dominant in the TBO than circulation and meridional temperature gradient anomalies over Asia. A fundamental element of the TBO is the large-scale east–west atmospheric circulation (the Walker circulation) that links anomalous convection and precipitation, winds, and ocean dynamics across the Indian and Pacific sectors. This circulation connects convection over the Asian–Australian monsoon regions both to the central and eastern Pacific (the eastern Walker cell), and to the central and western Indian Ocean (the western Walker cell). Analyses of upper-ocean data confirm previous results and show that ENSO El Niño and La Niña events as well as Indian Ocean SST dipole (or zonal mode) events are often large-amplitude excursions of the TBO in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, respectively, associated with anomalous eastern and western Walker cell circulations, coupled ocean dynamics, and upper-ocean temperature and heat content anomalies. Other years with similar but lower-amplitude signals in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans also contribute to the TBO. Observed upper-ocean data for the Indian Ocean show that slowly eastward-propagating equatorial ocean heat content anomalies, westward-propagating ocean Rossby waves south of the equator, and anomalous cross-equatorial ocean heat transports contribute to the heat content anomalies in the Indian Ocean and thus to the ocean memory and consequent SST anomalies, which are an essential part of the TBO.

Ground vs. surface air temperature trends: Implications for borehole surface temperature reconstructions

We have analyzed the relationship between surface air temperature (SAT), ground surface temperature (GST), and snow cover (SNC) over the terrestrial Northern Hemisphere based on general circulation model (GCM) simulations using GISS modelE forced with the observed SST and radiative forcing changes from 1951–1998. While SAT is the dominant influence on GST during the warm‐season, it explains only half of the variance in GST during the cold‐season, with SNC and pre‐conditioning by prior warm‐season SAT also exhibiting a sizeable and, in places, dominant influence. During a period of coincident surface warming and cold‐season snowcover decrease in the model (1971–1998), mean GST increases are 0.2°C less than those in SAT, a consequence of greater exposure of the ground surface to winter cold air outbreaks. Interpretations of past SAT trends from borehole‐based GST reconstructions may therefore be substantially biased by seasonal influences and snow cover changes.

NCEP Dynamical Seasonal Forecast System 2000

The new National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) numerical seasonal forecast system is described in detail. The new system is aimed at a next-generation numerical seasonal prediction in which focus is placed on land processes, initial conditions, and ensemble methods, in addition to the tropical SST forcing. The atmospheric model physics is taken from the NCEP–National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) reanalysis model, which has more comprehensive land hydrology and improved physical processes. The model was further upgraded by introducing three new parameterization schemes: 1) the relaxed Arakawa–Schubert (RAS) convective parameterization, which improved middle latitude response to tropical heating; 2) Chou's shortwave radiation, which corrected surface radiation fluxes; and 3) Chou's longwave radiation scheme together with smoothed mean orography that reduced model warm bias. Atmospheric initial conditions were taken from the operational NCEP Global Data Assimilation System, allowing the seasonal forecast to start from realistic initial conditions and to seamlessly connect with the short- and medium-range forecasts. The Pacific basin ocean model is the same as that in the old NCEP seasonal system and is coupled to the new atmospheric model with a two-tier approach. The operational atmospheric forecast is performed once a month with a 20-member ensemble. Prior to the forecast, 10-member ensemble hindcasts of the same month from 1979 to the present are performed to define model climatology and model forecast skill. The system has been running routinely since April 2000, and the products are available online at NWS's ftp site.