Oceanographic events during el nino

El Ni?o events, the most spectacular instances of interannual variability in the ocean, have profound consequences for climate and the ocean ecosystem. The 1982-1983 El Ni?o is perhaps the strongest in this century. El Ni?o events usually have followed a predictable pattern, but the recent event differs markedly. The physical oceanography of this El Ni?o is described and compared with that of earlier events.     

A north atlantic climate pacemaker for the centuries

Although El Ni?o and La Ni?a are the largest single sources of global interannual climate variability, climate shifts on longer time scales than El Ni?o's 2 to 7 years are also drawing the attention of researchers. On multidecadal time scales of 40 to 80 years, a restless North Atlantic seems to be at work, alternately countering and enhancing humankind's alterations of climate. The evidence for this is turning up in such records as tree rings, ice cores, and corals.     

Tropical tropospheric ozone and biomass burning

New methods for retrieving tropospheric ozone column depth and absorbing aerosol (smoke and dust) from the Earth Probe-Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (EP/TOMS) are used to follow pollution and to determine interannual variability and trends. During intense fires over Indonesia (August to November 1997), ozone plumes, decoupled from the smoke below, extended as far as India. This ozone overlay a regional ozone increase triggered by atmospheric responses to the El Ni?o and Indian Ocean Dipole. Tropospheric ozone and smoke aerosol measurements from the Nimbus 7 TOMS instrument show El Ni?o signals but no tropospheric ozone trend in the 1980s. Offsets between smoke and ozone seasonal maxima point to multiple factors determining tropical tropospheric ozone variability.     

Recent variability in the southern oscillation: isotopic results from a tarawa atoll coral

In the western tropical Pacific, the interannual migration of the Indonesian Low convective system causes changes in rainfall that dominate the regional signature of the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) system. A 96-year oxygen isotope record from a Tarawa Atoll coral (1 degrees N, 172 degrees E) reflects regional convective activity through rainfall-induced salinity changes. This monthly resolution record spans twice the length of the local climatological record and provides a history of ENSO variability comparable in quality with those derived from instrumental climate data. Comparison of this coral record with a historical chronology of EI Ni?o events indicates that climate anomalies in coastal South America are occasionally decoupled from Pacific-wide ENSO extremes. Spectral analysis suggests that the distribution of variance in this record has shifted among annual to interannual periods during the present century, concurrent with observed changes in the strength of the Southern Oscillation.     

Climatic forcing: effects of el nino on a small, temperate lake

Temperature profiles measured regularly for 21 years reveal the interannual differences in winter-to-summer heat gain in Castle Lake, California, a small subalpine lake. Year-to-year changes in large-scale climatic surface forcing, especially the amount of snowfall from February through April (which determines the date of thaw) coupled with the early heating and wind mixing after thaw, causes this interannual variation. The seasonal thermal structure for years in which the lake gains significantly more or less heat than normal-all of the El Ni?o years and several others-shows that the depth of the mixed layer and the mixing of heat into the stratified thermocline region control the storage of heat. The temperature of the mixed layer does not reflect abnormal thermal storage. Variations in mixing during early spring, which controls the heat content at Castle Lake, may also affect the annual average of the primary productivity.     

2005—2016年中国东海鲐鱼渔场的时空分布及与海表面温度的关联

鲐鱼(Scomber japonicus)是中上层经济鱼类,也是我国近海重要的捕捞对象,其资源分布受不同尺度气候和海洋环境变化的显著影响。本文根据2005-2016年7-9月中国远洋渔业数据中心提供的我国东海鲐鱼捕捞数据,结合关键因子海表面温度(sea surface temperature,SST),计算各年鲐鱼渔场经纬度重心,量化鲐鱼渔场重心的时空变化。进一步分析了捕捞努力量在经度、纬度以及SST上的分布规律,并基于聚类法筛选出代表年份评估异常气候事件对鲐鱼渔场内SST及渔场重心时空分布的影响。研究结果显示,鲐鱼渔场重心具有显著的年际和月间变化,7-9月渔场逐渐向东北方向移动,且主要分布在SST为25~28°C范围内。聚类分析将各月份渔场重心分为四类,其中2007和2015年渔场分布具有显著差异。此外,鲐鱼渔场内SST与尼诺指数具有显著的正相关关系,且代表年份2007和2015年分别对应拉尼娜事件和厄尔尼诺事件,当拉尼娜事件发生时,渔场内SST上升,渔场重心逐渐北移;而厄尔尼诺事件发生时,渔场内SST下降,渔场重心主要分布在南部海域。研究表明,中国东海鲐鱼渔场时空分布受到厄尔尼诺和拉尼娜调控的海表温度变化的显著影响。     

Dynamical response of the tropical Pacific Ocean to solar forcing during the early Holocene

We present a high-resolution magnesium/calcium proxy record of Holocene sea surface temperature (SST) from off the west coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico, a region where interannual SST variability is dominated today by the influence of the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Temperatures were lowest during the early to middle Holocene, consistent with documented eastern equatorial Pacific cooling and numerical model simulations of orbital forcing into a La Ni?a-like state at that time. The early Holocene SSTs were also characterized by millennial-scale fluctuations that correlate with cosmogenic nuclide proxies of solar variability, with inferred solar minima corresponding to El Ni?o-like (warm) conditions, in apparent agreement with the theoretical "ocean dynamical thermostat" response of ENSO to exogenous radiative forcing.     

A theory for el nino and the southern oscillation

A coupled atmosphere-ocean model is presented for El Ni?o and the Southern Oscillation that reproduces its major features, including its recurrence at irregular intervals. The interannual El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation cycle is maintained by deterministic interactions in the tropical Pacific region. Ocean dynamics alter sea-surface temperature, changing the atmospheric heating; the resulting changes in surface wind alter the ocean dynamics. Annually varying mean conditions largely determine the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of El Ni?o events.     

El Nino on the Devil's Staircase: Annual Subharmonic Steps to Chaos

The source of irregularity in El Ni?o, the large interannual climate variation of the Pacific ocean-atmosphere system, has remained elusive. Results from an El Ni?o model exhibit transition to chaos through a series of frequency-locked steps created by nonlinear resonance with the Earth's annual cycle. The overlapping of these resonances leads to the chaotic behavior. This transition scenario explains a number of climate model results and produces spectral characteristics consistent with currently available data.     

El Nino/La Nina事件对许昌气候的影响

根据1971～2009年期间发生的El Nino/La Nina事件和许昌市气象资料,利用统计分析的方法分析了1971年以来许昌气温、降水、旱涝灾害与El Nino/La Nina事件之间的关系,初步揭示了El Nino/La Nina事件对许昌气候的影响。结果表明,许昌市39年来温度和降水均有升高的趋势;厄尔尼诺年平均气温比正常年份高0.1℃,平均降水量比正常年份少34mm,厄尔尼诺次年降水增加,降水量多于正常年份35.3mm;拉尼娜年气温上升且波动较大,拉尼娜发生年平均气温比正常年份高0.3℃,拉尼娜年降水量多于正常年份2.3mm,拉尼娜次年降水量少于正常年份15.5mm;从气温来讲,拉尼娜年许昌气温的上升幅度要大于厄尔尼诺年气温的上升幅度。从降水量上来讲,厄尔尼诺年对许昌降水量的影响度要大于拉尼娜年对降水的影响度。El/La事件对许昌市旱涝灾害影响显著,拉尼娜年发生大涝灾害的几率较大。     

Super ENSO and global climate oscillations at millennial time scales

The late Pleistocene history of seawater temperature and salinity variability in the western tropical Pacific warm pool is reconstructed from oxygen isotope (delta18O) and magnesium/calcium composition of planktonic foraminifera. Differentiating the calcite delta18O record into components of temperature and local water delta18O reveals a dominant salinity signal that varied in accord with Dansgaard/Oeschger cycles over Greenland. Salinities were higher at times of high-latitude cooling and were lower during interstadials. The pattern and magnitude of the salinity variations imply shifts in the tropical Pacific ocean/atmosphere system analogous to modern El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). El Ni?o conditions correlate with stadials at high latitudes, whereas La Ni?a conditions correlate with interstadials. Millennial-scale shifts in atmospheric convection away from the western tropical Pacific may explain many paleo-observations, including lower atmospheric CO2, N2O, and CH4 during stadials and patterns of extratropical ocean variability that have tropical source functions that are negatively correlated with El Ni?o.     

Surface-generated mesoscale eddies transport deep-sea products from hydrothermal vents

Atmospheric forcing, which is known to have a strong influence on surface ocean dynamics and production, is typically not considered in studies of the deep sea. Our observations and models demonstrate an unexpected influence of surface-generated mesoscale eddies in the transport of hydrothermal vent efflux and of vent larvae away from the northern East Pacific Rise. Transport by these deep-reaching eddies provides a mechanism for spreading the hydrothermal chemical and heat flux into the deep-ocean interior and for dispersing propagules hundreds of kilometers between isolated and ephemeral communities. Because the eddies interacting with the East Pacific Rise are formed seasonally and are sensitive to phenomena such as El Ni?o, they have the potential to introduce seasonal to interannual atmospheric variations into the deep sea.     

Meteorological aspects of the el nino/southern oscillation

The single most prominent signal in year-to-year climate variability is the Southern Oscillation, which is associated with fluctuations in atmospheric pressure at sea level in the tropics, monsoon rainfall, and wintertime circulation over North America and other parts of the extratropics. Although meteorologists have known about the Southern Oscillation for more than a half-century, its relation to the oceanic El Ni?o phenomenon was not recognized until the late 1960's, and a theoretical understanding of these relations has begun to emerge only during the past few years. The past 18 months have been characterized by what is probably the most pronounced and certainly the best-documented El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation episode of the past century. In this review meteorological aspects of the time history of the 1982-1983 episode are described and compared with a composite based on six previous events between 1950 and 1975, and the impact of these new observations on theoretical interpretations of the event is discussed.     

Cholera dynamics and El Niño-Southern Oscillation

Analysis of a monthly 18-year cholera time series from Bangladesh shows that the temporal variability of cholera exhibits an interannual component at the dominant frequency of El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Results from nonlinear time series analysis support a role for both ENSO and previous disease levels in the dynamics of cholera. Cholera patterns are linked to the previously described changes in the atmospheric circulation of south Asia and, consistent with these changes, to regional temperature anomalies.     

Unraveling the mystery of Indian monsoon failure during El Niño

The 132-year historical rainfall record reveals that severe droughts in India have always been accompanied by El Ni?o events. Yet El Ni?o events have not always produced severe droughts. We show that El Ni?o events with the warmest sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the central equatorial Pacific are more effective in focusing drought-producing subsidence over India than events with the warmest SSTs in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The physical basis for such different impacts is established using atmospheric general circulation model experiments forced with idealized tropical Pacific warmings. These findings have important implications for Indian monsoon forecasting.     

Zonal winds in the central equatorial pacific and el nino

Easterly trade winds from near-equatorial islands in the central Pacific weakened before each El Ni?o between 1950 and 1978, except for the 1963 El Ni?o. The weakening of the easterlies and their later collapse did not occur uniformly over several months, but rather through a series of strong westerly wind bursts lasting 1 to 3 weeks. The bursts may force equatorial Kelvin waves in the ocean that can both initiate and sustain the sea surface warming characteristics of El Ni?o events.     

Satellite observations of the 1982-1983 el nino along the u.s. Pacific coast

Satellite infrared temperature images illustrate several effects of the 1982-1983 El Ni?o: warm sea-surface temperatures with the greatest anomalies near the coast, weakened coastal upwelling, and changes in surface circulation patterns. Phytoplankton pigment images from the Coastal Zone Color Scanner indicate reduced productivity during El Ni?o, apparently related to the weakened coastal upwelling The satellite images provide direct evidence of mesoscale changes associated with the oceanwide El Ni?o event.     

Physical and biological controls on carbon cycling in the equatorial pacific

The equatorial Pacific is the largest oceanic source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and has been proposed to be a major site of organic carbon export to the deep sea. Study of the chemistry and biology of this area from 170 degrees to 95 degrees W suggests that variability of remote winds in the western Pacific and tropical instability waves are the major factors controlling chemical and biological variability. The reason is that most of the biological production is based on recycled nutrients; only a few of the nutrients transported to the surface by upwelling are taken up by photosynthesis. Biological cycling within the euphotic zone is efficient, and the export of carbon fixed by photosynthesis is small. The fluxes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and particulate organic carbon to the deep sea were about 0.3 gigatons per year, and the production of dissolved organic carbon was about three times as large. The data establish El Ni?o events as the main source of interannual variability.     

Length-of-Day Variations Caused by El Nino-Southern Oscillation and Quasi-Biennial Oscillation

Two prominent interannual atmospheric fluctuations, the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation in the troposphere-ocean system and the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation in the equatorial stratosphere, account for most of the observed interannual length-of-day (LOD) variation from 1964 through 1987, with a relative contribution of about 2 to 1. Thus the atmosphere-LOD connection extends from seasonal and shorter periods to interannual periods up to about 10 years.     

ENSO as an integrating concept in earth science

The El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle of alternating warm El Ni?o and cold La Ni?a events is the dominant year-to-year climate signal on Earth. ENSO originates in the tropical Pacific through interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere, but its environmental and socioeconomic impacts are felt worldwide. Spurred on by the powerful 1997-1998 El Ni?o, efforts to understand the causes and consequences of ENSO have greatly expanded in the past few years. These efforts reveal the breadth of ENSO's influence on the Earth system and the potential to exploit its predictability for societal benefit. However, many intertwined issues regarding ENSO dynamics, impacts, forecasting, and applications remain unresolved. Research to address these issues will not only lead to progress across a broad range of scientific disciplines but also provide an opportunity to educate the public and policy makers about the importance of climate variability and change in the modern world.