Recently, the research team led by Prof. Wan Xiuquan from OUC’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences has made great progress in tropical Pacific air-sea interaction in cooperation with scholars from the US and Japan. It reveals for the first time the key role played by the topographically complex region of oceanic continents in the air-sea interactions between the tropical Atlantic-Pacific basins. On June 7, the research result was published in Nature Communications under the title of “Role of the Maritime Continent in the remote influence of Atlantic Niño on the Pacific”.
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a prominent signal of seasonal to interdecadal climate variability on a global scale. The Atlantic Niño phenomenon in the tropical Atlantic Ocean can influence Atlantic climate variability and cause unusual rainfall in neighboring countries. In addition, it can also impact the Pacific Ocean through atmospheric bridges, leading to subsequent winter ENSOs. Therefore, a systematic understanding of the physical mechanisms underlying the establishment of atmospheric bridges is crucial to studying tropical trans-oceanic basin interactions.
Based on observational data and the Community Earth System Mode (CESM), the research affirmed that the atmospheric Kelvin Wave triggered by Atlantic Niño is the main factor influencing ENSO. Numerical modeling reveals that both oceanic continental topography and momentum friction effects of land surface can modulate the atmospheric Kelvin Wave and thus influence ENSO evolution (Diagram 1). It also shows that the energy of atmospheric Kelvin Wave limits the position and intensity of ENSO response in the Pacific Ocean (Diagram 2).
The results of this study fill the blank in the previous explanation of the Atlantic Niño-ENSO’s cross-basin interaction mechanism, providing scientific support for constructing the theoretical framework of the physical mechanism of the trans-tropical basin air-sea interaction. They also help to improve the predictability of ENSO as a significant guidance for reducing deviations of the coupled climate model for the ENSO simulation.
Link to the Article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39036-w
