Back to Search
Start Over
Contrasting Transition Complexity Between El Niño and La Niña: Observations and CMIP5/6 Models
- Source :
- Geophysical Research Letters. 47
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2020.
-
Abstract
- Author(s): Fang, SW; Yu, JY | Abstract: The observed El Nino and La Nina exhibit different complexities in their event-to-event transition patterns. The El Nino is dominated in order by episodic, cyclic, and multiyear transitions, but the reversed order is found in the La Nina. A subtropical Pacific onset mechanism is used to explain this difference. This mechanism triggers El Nino/La Nina events via subtropical processes and is responsible for producing multiyear and episodic transitions. Its nonlinear responses to the tropical Pacific mean state result in more multiyear transitions for La Nina than El Nino and more episodic transitions for El Nino than La Nina. The CMIP5/6 models realistically simulate the observed transition complexity of El Nino but fail to simulate the transition complexity of La Nina. This deficiency in CMIP5 models arises from a weaker than observed subtropical onset mechanism and a cold bias in the tropical Pacific mean sea surface temperatures in the models.
Details
- ISSN :
- 19448007 and 00948276
- Volume :
- 47
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........fe69c7eef1cfaebe6f0e0ddc7a440d63
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl088926