85th AMS Annual Meeting

Tuesday, 11 January 2005: 4:15 PM
Does ENSO lead the Pacific interdecadal change?
SOON-IL An, International Pacific Research Center, Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI; and J. S. Kug and I. S. Kang
A paradigm on the interdecadal changes in the North Pacific via a nonlinear teleconnection process of ENSO is proposed. The atmospheric circulation and SST patterns associated with the changes in the tropical SST anomaly are obtained by using the nonlinear regression method. The atmospheric teleconnection pattern is shifted eastward during El Nino as compared with La Nina, and the SST anomaly induced by this atmospheric circulation during La Nina is larger than the SST anomaly during El Nino. The residual of the nonlinear regressed North Pacific SST pattern associated with El Nino and La Nina exhibits a similar pattern to the observed interdecadal change in the North Pacific SST, indicating that the Pacific interdecadal changes is mostly induced by the nonlinear rectifier effect.

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