Variability of sea surface temperature diurnal warming

Sea surface temperature diurnal warming varies across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, and is mainly correlated with variations in solar radiation and wind speed. In this talk we address variability of the diurnal warming and its relationship to such larger-scale variability as MJOs and ENSO. Variability across multiple time scales is performed using wavelet decomposition techniques, and correlation maps of the principal modes of variability show that in the tropical Pacific most of the sub-seasonal variability in the diurnal SST warming occurs in conjunction with the MJO. Removal of this signal from the time series reinforces the interannual variability of the observed dipole across the tropical Pacific in diurnal warming. Implications of this interannual variability will be discussed.