Monday, 10 February 2003: 10:00 AM
The interaction of coupled ocean-atmosphere variability in the Atlantic and the Pacific
Following major warm events in the equatorial Pacific there are often
major warmings in the Atlantic. These Atlantic events tend to have a
significant time delay (6-12 months) relative to the El Nino events. The
most notable example of this phenomenon was the 1984 Atlantic warming
which followed the 1982-83 El Nino. We use a coupled atmosphere-ocean
model of intermediate complexity which includes both ocean basins to
study this effect. The model is able to simulate ENSO variability with
exceptional fidelity. We find that a rather simple and plausible
atmospheric teleconnection between the basins is able to produce
realistic coupled variability in both basins with the appropriate time
delay. We discuss in detail the dynamical origin of the delay.
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