Tropical Tropopause Temperatures Research Articles

Decadal variability of tropical tropopause temperature and its relationship to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Tropopause temperatures (TPTs) control the amount of stratospheric water vapour, which influences chemistry, radiation and circulation in the stratosphere, and is also an important driver of surface climate. Decadal variability and long-term trends in tropical TPTs as well as stratospheric water vapour are largely unknown. Here, we present for the first time evidence, from reanalysis and state-of-the-art climate model simulations, of a link between decadal variability in tropical TPTs and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). The negative phase of the PDO is associated with anomalously cold sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the tropical east and central Pacific, which enhance the zonal SST gradient across the equatorial Pacific. The latter drives a stronger Walker Circulation and a weaker Hadley Circulation, which leads to less convection and subsequently a warmer tropopause over the central equatorial Pacific. Over the North Pacific, positive sea level pressure anomalies occur, which damp vertical wave propagation into the stratosphere. This in turn slows the Brewer-Dobson circulation, and hence warms the tropical tropopause, enabling more water vapour to enter the stratosphere. The reverse chain of events holds for the positive phase of the PDO. Such ocean-troposphere-stratosphere interactions may provide an important feedback on the Earth’s global surface temperature.

Tropical tropopause layer cirrus and its relation to tropopause

This study examines the spatial and temporal patterns of tropical tropopause layer (TTL) cirrus clouds (i.e., clouds with bases higher than 14.5km) and their relationship to tropical tropopause including both cold point tropopause (CPT) and lapse rate tropopause (LRT). We use eight years (2006–2014) data from the Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) and Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) measurements. In addition to the CALIPSO cloud layer product, the clouds included in the current CALIPSO dataset as stratospheric features have been considered by separating clouds from aerosols, which are important in the TTL cloud analysis. It is also shown that the temporal variation of the stratospheric aerosols matches well with the volcanic eruption events. The TTL cloud fraction and the tropical tropopause temperature both have pronounced annual cycles and are strongly negatively correlated both temporally and spatially. The examination of the TTL cloud height relative to tropopause from collocated CALIPSO and COSMIC observations indicates that the tropopause plays a critical role in constraining the TTL cloud top height. We show that the probability density function of TTL cloud top height peaks just below the CPT while the occurrence of TTL clouds with cloud tops above the CPT could be largely explained by observed tropopause height uncertainty associated with the COSMIC vertical resolution.

Is there a solar signal in lower stratospheric water vapour?

Abstract. A merged time series of stratospheric water vapour built from the Halogen Occultation Instrument (HALOE) and the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) data between 60° S and 60° N and 15 to 30 km and covering the years 1992 to 2012 was analysed by multivariate linear regression, including an 11-year solar cycle proxy. Lower stratospheric water vapour was found to reveal a phase-shifted anti-correlation with the solar cycle, with lowest water vapour after solar maximum. The phase shift is composed of an inherent constant time lag of about 2 years and a second component following the stratospheric age of air. The amplitudes of the water vapour response are largest close to the tropical tropopause (up to 0.35 ppmv) and decrease with altitude and latitude. Including the solar cycle proxy in the regression results in linear trends of water vapour being negative over the full altitude/latitude range, while without the solar proxy, positive water vapour trends in the lower stratosphere were found. We conclude from these results that a solar signal seems to be generated at the tropical tropopause which is most likely imprinted on the stratospheric water vapour abundances and transported to higher altitudes and latitudes via the Brewer–Dobson circulation. Hence it is concluded that the tropical tropopause temperature at the final dehydration point of air may also be governed to some degree by the solar cycle. The negative water vapour trends obtained when considering the solar cycle impact on water vapour abundances can possibly solve the "water vapour conundrum" of increasing stratospheric water vapour abundances despite constant or even decreasing tropopause temperatures.

TTL cooling and drying during the January 2013 stratospheric sudden warming

Extremely low water vapour concentrations (as low as 1.5 ppmv) in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) were observed by in situ measurements during the Airborne Tropical TRopopause Experiment (ATTREX) winter 2013 deployment in February 2013. The January 2013 tropical (15°N–15°S) mean value of Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) water vapour satellite data at 82 hPa (2.3 ppmv) was one of the lowest during the instrument record (2004–2013). The relationship between a cooling of the tropical tropopause, a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event and convective activity in the western Pacific is investigated using satellite data and reanalysis meteorological products to elucidate the likely origin of those extremely low water vapour concentrations. A major midwinter SSW developed on 6 January 2013. Stratospheric polar temperatures increased by ∼30 K in a matter of days and temperatures in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) dropped at the same time. As a result of the easterly shear phase of the Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation and the SSW, the tropical tropopause in January 2013 was anomalously cold (zonal mean of 187 K) and elevated (85 hPa). The tropical cold point tropopause (CPT) temperature and water vapour concentration at 82 hPa decreased by about 2 K and 1.5 ppmv respectively within the first 15 days of January; the water vapour change was likely a result of dehydration associated with the rapid cooling of the tropical CPT during that period.

Processes Controlling Tropical Tropopause Temperature and Stratospheric Water Vapor in Climate Models

Abstract A warm bias in tropical tropopause temperature is found in the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM), in common with most models from phase 5 of CMIP (CMIP5). Key dynamical, microphysical, and radiative processes influencing the tropical tropopause temperature and lower-stratospheric water vapor concentrations in climate models are investigated using the MetUM. A series of sensitivity experiments are run to separate the effects of vertical advection, ice optical and microphysical properties, convection, cirrus clouds, and atmospheric composition on simulated tropopause temperature and lower-stratospheric water vapor concentrations in the tropics. The numerical accuracy of the vertical advection, determined in the MetUM by the choice of interpolation and conservation schemes used, is found to be particularly important. Microphysical and radiative processes are found to influence stratospheric water vapor both through modifying the tropical tropopause temperature and through modifying upper-tropospheric water vapor concentrations, allowing more water vapor to be advected into the stratosphere. The representation of any of the processes discussed can act to significantly reduce biases in tropical tropopause temperature and stratospheric water vapor in a physical way, thereby improving climate simulations.

Is there a stratospheric radiative feedback in global warming simulations?

The radiative impacts of the stratosphere in global warming simulations are investigated using abrupt CO2 quadrupling experiments of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5), with a focus on stratospheric temperature and water vapor. It is found that the stratospheric temperature change has a robust bullhorn-like zonal-mean pattern due to a strengthening of the stratospheric overturning circulation. This temperature change modifies the zonal mean top-of-the-atmosphere energy balance, but the compensation of the regional effects leads to an insignificant global-mean radiative feedback (−0.02 ± 0.04 W m−2 K−1). The stratospheric water vapor concentration generally increases, which leads to a weak positive global-mean radiative feedback (0.02 ± 0.01 W m−2 K−1). The stratospheric moistening is related to mixing of elevated upper-tropospheric humidity, and, to a lesser extent, to change in tropical tropopause temperature. Our results indicate that the strength of the stratospheric water vapor feedback is noticeably larger in high-top models than in low-top ones. The results here indicate that although its radiative impact as a forcing adjustment is significant, the stratosphere makes a minor contribution to the overall climate feedback in CMIP5 models.

Direct impacts of waves on tropical cold point tropopause temperature

AbstractCold point tropopause temperature is a key regulator of cirrus clouds and stratospheric water vapor, which have significant impacts on the Earth's radiation budget and climate. Using tropical radiosonde observations, we show that waves in the tropical tropopause layer lower cold point temperature by 1.6 K on average relative to the seasonal mean. Furthermore, wave activity in the tropical tropopause layer has not been constant over the last 2.5 decades, altering the magnitude of the wave impacts on cold point temperature at a decadal scale. The change in the direct wave impact is partially (~20–30%) responsible for the sudden decrease in cold point temperature and stratospheric water vapor at the end of 2000, which has not been fully explained by changes in the Brewer‐Dobson circulation. We further show that these wave impacts are not well represented in reanalysis data.

Vertical structure of stratospheric water vapour trends derived from merged satellite data.

Stratospheric water vapour is a powerful greenhouse gas. The longest available record from balloon observations over Boulder, Colorado, USA shows increases in stratospheric water vapour concentrations that cannot be fully explained by observed changes in the main drivers, tropical tropopause temperatures and methane. Satellite observations could help resolve the issue, but constructing a reliable long-term data record from individual short satellite records is challenging. Here we present an approach to merge satellite data sets with the help of a chemistry-climate model nudged to observed meteorology. We use the models' water vapour as a transfer function between data sets that overcomes issues arising from instrument drift and short overlap periods. In the lower stratosphere, our water vapour record extends back to 1988 and water vapour concentrations largely follow tropical tropopause temperatures. Lower and mid-stratospheric long-term trends are negative, and the trends from Boulder are shown not to be globally representative. In the upper stratosphere, our record extends back to 1986 and shows positive long-term trends. The altitudinal differences in the trends are explained by methane oxidation together with a strengthened lower-stratospheric and a weakened upper-stratospheric circulation inferred by this analysis. Our results call into question previous estimates of surface radiative forcing based on presumed global long-term increases in water vapour concentrations in the lower stratosphere.

Indo-Pacific Warm Pool Area Expansion, Modoki Activity and Tropical Cold-Point Tropopause Temperature Variations

The tropical cold-point tropopause temperature (CPTT), a potentially important indicator of global climate change, is of particular importance for understanding changes in stratospheric water vapor levels. Since the 1980s, the tropical CPTT has shown not only interannual variations, but also a decreasing trend. However, the factors controlling the variations in the tropical CPTT since the 1980s remain elusive. The present study reveals that the continuous expansion of the area of the Indo-Pacific warm pool (IPWP) since the 1980s represents an increase in the total heat energy of the IPWP available to heat the tropospheric air, which is likely to expand as a result. This process lifts the tropical cold-point tropopause height (CPTH) and leads to the observed long-term cooling trend of the tropical CPTT. In addition, our analysis shows that Modoki activity is an important factor in modulating the interannual variations of the tropical CPTT through significant effects on overshooting convection.

Improved cirrus simulations in a general circulation model using CARMA sectional microphysics

We have developed a new cirrus model incorporating sectional ice microphysics from the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA) in the latest version of NCAR's Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5). Comparisons with DARDAR and 2C‐ICE show that CAM5/CARMA improves cloud fraction, ice water content, and ice water path compared to the standard CAM5. Prognostic snow in CAM5/CARMA increases overall ice mass and results in a melting layer at ~4 km in the tropics that is largely absent in CAM5. Subgrid scale supersaturation following Wilson and Ballard (1999) improves ice mass and relative humidity. Increased middle and upper tropospheric condensate in CAM5/CARMA requires a reduction in low‐level cloud for energy balance, resulting in a 3.1 W m−2 improvement in shortwave cloud forcing and a 3.8 W m−2 improvement in downwelling shortwave flux at the surface compared to CAM5 and Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy Systems (CERES). Total and clear‐sky longwave upwelling flux at the top are improved in CAM5/CARMA by 1.0 and 2.6 W m−2, respectively. CAM has a 2–3 K cold bias at the tropical tropopause mostly from the prescribed ozone file. Correction of the prescribed ozone or nudging the CAM5/CARMA model to GEOS5‐DAS meteorology yields tropical tropopause temperatures and water vapor that agree with the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) and the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). CAM5 relative humidity appears to be too large resulting in a +1.5 ppmv water vapor bias at the tropical tropopause when using GEOS5‐DAS meteorology. In CAM5/CARMA, 75% of the cloud ice mass originates from ice particles detrained from convection compared to 25% from in situ nucleation.

Variations in middle atmospheric water vapor from 2004 to 2013

AbstractWe show measurements of middle atmospheric water vapor as measured by two ground‐based Water Vapor Millimeter‐wave Spectrometer instruments and three satellite‐based instruments: the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder, the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE), and the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS). We also show CH4 measurements from the MIPAS and ACE instruments and use these to help interpret the H2O variations. We find that interannual changes in stratospheric H2O of ~0.5 ppmv, observed from Table Mountain, California, at 26 km and 40 km from 2010 to 2012, are caused primarily by dynamically driven changes in CH4 during this period. The interannual variations in H2O observed over Mauna Loa, Hawaii, are shown to be quite similar to the average variations observed over 50°S–50°N in the lower mesosphere; thus, we conclude that a single ground‐based microwave instrument can provide a useful estimate of interannual globally averaged lower mesospheric H2O variations, even when such changes are as small as ~0.2–0.3 ppmv. We find that the increase of ~0.2–0.3 ppmv in H2O in the lower mesosphere since 2006 is qualitatively consistent with an increase in tropical tropopause temperature since around 2001.

Intraseasonal variations in the tropical tropopause temperature revealed by cluster analysis of convective activity

Space‐time variations of the tropical convective activities and temperatures around the tropical tropopause associated with the intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) are investigated using outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and atmospheric fields from the European Centre for Medium‐range Weather Forecasts Interim reanalysis data. By performing cluster analysis using the locus of convective activities observed in the unfiltered OLR field, the 72 ISO events selected during the southern summers from 1979–2011 are mainly grouped into four clusters. Two of the clusters exhibit the slow (<2 m/s) propagation speed in the unfiltered OLR field and the others fast (∼4 m/s). One cluster characterized as the El Niño phase has the fast speed while passing over the date line and another as the La Niña phase has the slow speed while propagating to ∼120°E. Compared with the other two clusters characterized as the weak El Niño‐Southern Oscillation phase, the speed is slow while propagating to ∼135°E when the SSTs over the Western Pacific are relatively low. Low temperatures around the tropical tropopause appear to the east of the eastward‐propagating convection in the tropics and to the west in the subtropics, forming a horseshoe‐shaped structure. The strength of the horseshoe‐shaped temperature structure is determined by that of the convective activities. Furthermore, the strength and location of the 100 hPa temperature minima differ among the clusters. This study implies that the different ISOs would cause different impacts on the dehydration process depending on their types.

Ice nucleation and dehydration in the Tropical Tropopause Layer

Optically thin cirrus near the tropical tropopause regulate the humidity of air entering the stratosphere, which in turn has a strong influence on the Earth's radiation budget and climate. Recent high-altitude, unmanned aircraft measurements provide evidence for two distinct classes of cirrus formed in the tropical tropopause region: (i) vertically extensive cirrus with low ice number concentrations, low extinctions, and large supersaturations (up to ∼70%) with respect to ice; and (ii) vertically thin cirrus layers with much higher ice concentrations that effectively deplete the vapor in excess of saturation. The persistent supersaturation in the former class of cirrus is consistent with the long time-scales (several hours or longer) for quenching of vapor in excess of saturation given the low ice concentrations and cold tropical tropopause temperatures. The low-concentration clouds are likely formed on a background population of insoluble particles with concentrations less than 100 L(-1) (often less than 20 L(-1)), whereas the high ice concentration layers (with concentrations up to 10,000 L(-1)) can only be produced by homogeneous freezing of an abundant population of aqueous aerosols. These measurements, along with past high-altitude aircraft measurements, indicate that the low-concentration cirrus occur frequently in the tropical tropopause region, whereas the high-concentration cirrus occur infrequently. The predominance of the low-concentration clouds means cirrus near the tropical tropopause may typically allow entry of air into the stratosphere with as much as ∼1.7 times the ice saturation mixing ratio.

Stepwise changes in stratospheric water vapor?

The sparse data available of stratospheric water vapor since the 1950s suggests a positive long‐term trend that cannot be explained by the methane increase and what is known about temperature trends around the tropical tropopause, which constrain the amount of water entering the stratosphere. Here, we discuss the 1991–2005 time series of stratospheric water (and methane) measurements from the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE). The high sampling, global coverage and measurement of methane render HALOE data ideal to check the data for self‐consistency and to pinpoint the time of changes in entry mixing ratios. In addition to the well‐known ‘drop’ in October 2000, the HALOE data at 10 hPa and less suggest a steep increase in entry mixing ratios shortly before the beginning of the HALOE measurements. Model calculations using simple representations of the stratospheric age of air spectrum in the tropics show that the very dry phase may be explained by a range of scenarios: A long (several years) dry phase followed by a step increase with amplitude 0.3 ppmv; a shorter (≥1 year) dry pulse with amplitude 0.6 ppmv; or steep linear trends over about 2 years with total increases similar to the step scenarios. The drop in October 2000 coincides with anomalously large eddy heat fluxes in the Southern hemisphere and low tropopause temperatures, but no such relation is found for the situation around 1991. The coincidence with the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo is discussed. The evidence for the results presented here is circumstantial, but they would imply that decoupling between stratospheric water trends and tropical tropopause temperatures can occur on short timescales.

Seasonal and interannual variability in the temperature structure around the tropical tropopause and its relationship with convective activities

Seasonal and interannual variability in the tropical tropopause temperatures and its relationship with convective activities are examined by using the ECMWF 40 year reanalysis data and NOAA/OLR data. Low temperatures generally occur over the equator in the eastern hemisphere and extend northwestward and southwestward in the subtropics to form a horseshoe‐shaped structure. Because this structure resembles a stationary wave response known as the Matsuno‐Gill pattern, which is a superposition of the Rossby and Kelvin responses, the two preliminary indices are defined to represent the two responses. The horseshoe‐shaped structure index is then calculated from the two indices. The seasonal cycle in the horseshoe‐shaped structure index is significantly related to that observed in convective activities adjacent to three monsoon regions: the South Asian monsoon (SoAM) and the North Pacific monsoon (NPM) areas during the northern summer and the Australian monsoon (AUM) area during the southern summer. The convective activities in the SoAM and NPM areas individually influence the horseshoe‐shaped structure. During the northern summer, interannual variation in the horseshoe‐shaped structure index in the NPM area is related to that observed in convective activities associated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle with about a half‐year time lag. In the SoAM area, the variation is mainly controlled by isolated high temperatures, which are surrounded by the horseshoe‐shaped temperature structures and are not related to convective activities. During the southern summer, the horseshoe‐shaped structure index is related to convective anomalies associated with the ENSO cycle, shifting eastward in El Niño years.

Dehydration of the stratosphere

Abstract. Domain filling, forward trajectory calculations are used to examine the global dehydration processes that control stratospheric water vapor. As with most Lagrangian models of this type, water vapor is instantaneously removed from the parcel to keep the relative humidity (RH) with respect to ice from exceeding saturation or a specified super-saturation value. We also test a simple parameterization of stratospheric convective moistening through ice lofting and the effect of gravity waves as a mechanism that can augment dehydration. Comparing diabatic and kinematic trajectories driven by the MERRA reanalysis, we find that, unlike the results from Liu et al. (2010), the additional transport due to the vertical velocity "noise" in the kinematic calculation creates too dry a stratosphere and a too diffuse a water-vapor tape recorder signal compared observations. We also show that the kinematically driven parcels are more likely to encounter the coldest tropopause temperatures than the diabatic trajectories. The diabatic simulations produce stratospheric water vapor mixing ratios close to that observed by Aura's Microwave Limb Sounder and are consistent with the MERRA tropical tropopause temperature biases. Convective moistening, which will increase stratospheric HDO, also increases stratospheric water vapor while the addition of parameterized gravity waves does the opposite. We find that while the Tropical West Pacific is the dominant dehydration location, but dehydration over Tropical South America is also important. Antarctica makes a small contribution to the overall stratospheric water vapor budget as well by releasing very dry air into the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere following the break up of the winter vortex.

Middle atmosphere response to the solar cycle in irradiance and ionizing particle precipitation

Abstract. The impact of NOx and HOx production by three types of energetic particle precipitation (EPP), auroral zone medium and high energy electrons, solar proton events and galactic cosmic rays on the middle atmosphere is examined using a chemistry climate model. This process study uses ensemble simulations forced by transient EPP derived from observations with one-year repeating sea surface temperatures and fixed chemical boundary conditions for cases with and without solar cycle in irradiance. Our model results show a wintertime polar stratosphere ozone reduction of between 3 and 10 % in agreement with previous studies. EPP is found to modulate the radiative solar cycle effect in the middle atmosphere in a significant way, bringing temperature and ozone variations closer to observed patterns. The Southern Hemisphere polar vortex undergoes an intensification from solar minimum to solar maximum instead of a weakening. This changes the solar cycle variation of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, with a weakening during solar maxima compared to solar minima. In response, the tropical tropopause temperature manifests a statistically significant solar cycle variation resulting in about 4 % more water vapour transported into the lower tropical stratosphere during solar maxima compared to solar minima. This has implications for surface temperature variation due to the associated change in radiative forcing.

Water vapor trends over Boulder, Colorado

Water vapor in the atmosphere is responsible for a significant portion of the greenhouse effect, and even small changes in the upper troposphere or lower stratosphere can have a large effect on climate. A new analysis of water vapor measurements by balloon‐borne frost point hygrometers over Boulder, Colo., shows that stratospheric water vapor has increased over the past 30 years. Hurst et al. broke the long measurement record into four discrete time periods and determined the water vapor trends in each period for five 2‐kilometer‐thick stratospheric layers (16–26 kilometers in altitude). The scientists found that, on average, stratospheric water vapor increased by about 1 part per million by volume (27%) over the past 30 years, though there were many shorter‐term variations in the record. Water vapor levels increased during 1980–1989 and 1990–2000, decreased from 2001 to 2005, and then increased again after 2005. The authors found that, at most, 30% of the observed water vapor increases can be attributed to greater amounts of methane oxidation in the stratosphere. The 2001–2005 decrease in midlatitude water vapor has been linked to observations of anomalously low tropopause temperatures in the tropics, but, to date, no connection between the observed water vapor increases and tropical tropopause temperatures has been found despite ongoing efforts. (Journal of Geophysical Research‐Atmospheres, doi:10.1029/2010JD015065, 2011)

Multimodel assessment of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere: Tropics and global trends

The performance of 18 coupled Chemistry Climate Models (CCMs) in the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) is evaluated using qualitative and quantitative diagnostics. Trends in tropopause quantities in the tropics and the extratropical Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) are analyzed. A quantitative grading methodology for evaluating CCMs is extended to include variability and used to develop four different grades for tropical tropopause temperature and pressure, water vapor and ozone. Four of the 18 models and the multi‐model mean meet quantitative and qualitative standards for reproducing key processes in the TTL. Several diagnostics are performed on a subset of the models analyzing the Tropopause Inversion Layer (TIL), Lagrangian cold point and TTL transit time. Historical decreases in tropical tropopause pressure and decreases in water vapor are simulated, lending confidence to future projections. The models simulate continued decreases in tropopause pressure in the 21st century, along with ∼1K increases per century in cold point tropopause temperature and 0.5–1 ppmv per century increases in water vapor above the tropical tropopause. TTL water vapor increases below the cold point. In two models, these trends are associated with 35% increases in TTL cloud fraction. These changes indicate significant perturbations to TTL processes, specifically to deep convective heating and humidity transport. Ozone in the extratropical lowermost stratosphere has significant and hemispheric asymmetric trends. O3 is projected to increase by nearly 30% due to ozone recovery in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) and due to enhancements in the stratospheric circulation. These UTLS ozone trends may have significant effects in the TTL and the troposphere.

Role of vertical eddy heat flux in the response of tropical tropopause temperature to changes in tropical sea surface temperature

We performed numerical experiments using an atmospheric general circulation model to assess the effect of convections associated with various tropical sea surface temperature (SST) fields on the tropical tropopause (TT). Three experiments were designed with different patterns of tropical SST: increasing and decreasing mean tropical SST, enhanced and weakened longitudinal gradient of tropical SST, and observed SST corresponding to strong El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. The results reveal that vertical advection plays an important role in controlling seasonal variation in TT temperature. In the case of a large (small) longitudinal gradient of tropical SST, the vertical eddy heat flux () diverges strongly (weakly) around the TT, resulting in cooling (warming) of the TT. Divergence of the vertical eddy heat flux is a primary controlling factor of variations in interannual TT temperature, especially during the peak of El Niño events. Analysis of ERA‐Interim and ERA‐40 data supports our results regarding the influence of vertical eddy heat flux on TT temperature. Divergence of vertical eddy heat flux at the TT layer is sensitive to the “strength” of the Matsuno‐Gill–type tropical stationary wave response; this divergence appears to explain variations in the observed TT temperature associated with ENSO.