Theories on formation of an anomalous anticyclone in western North Pacific during El Niño: A review
Author
Li, Tim
Wang, Bin
Wu, Bo
Zhou, Tianjun
Chang, Chih-Pei
Zhang, Renhe
Date
2017-12Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The western North Pacific anomalous anticyclone (WNPAC) is an important atmospheric circulation system that
conveys El Niño impact on East Asian climate. In this review paper, various theories on the formation and maintenance
of the WNPAC, including warm pool atmosphere–ocean interaction, Indian Ocean capacitor, a combination
mode that emphasizes nonlinear interaction between ENSO and annual cycle, moist enthalpy advection/Rossby wave
modulation, and central Pacific SST forcing, are discussed. It is concluded that local atmosphere–ocean interaction
and moist enthalpy advection/Rossby wave modulation mechanisms are essential for the initial development and
maintenance of the WNPAC during El Niño mature winter and subsequent spring. The Indian Ocean capacitor mechanism
does not contribute to the earlier development but helps maintain the WNPAC in El Niño decaying summer.
The cold SST anomaly in the western North Pacific, although damped in the summer, also plays a role. An interbasin
atmosphere–ocean interaction across the Indo-Pacific warm pool emerges as a new mechanism in summer. In
addition, the central Pacific cold SST anomaly may induce the WNPAC during rapid El Niño decaying/La Niña developing
or La Niña persisting summer. The near-annual periods predicted by the combination mode theory are
hardly detected from observations and thus do not contribute to the formation of the WNPAC. The tropical Atlantic
may have a capacitor effect similar to the tropical Indian Ocean.
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13351-017-7147-6
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
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