Decadal Prediction in the Pacific Region

Abstract

Abstract A “perfect model” configuration with a global coupled climate model 30-member ensemble is used to address decadal prediction of Pacific SSTs. All model data are low-pass filtered to focus on the low-frequency decadal component. The first three EOFs in the twentieth-century simulation, representing nearly 80% of the total variance, are used as the basis for early twenty-first-century predictions. The first two EOFs represent the forced trend and the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO), respectively, as noted in previous studies, and the third has elements of both trend and IPO patterns. The perfect model reference simulation, the target for the prediction, is taken as the experiment that ran continuously from the twentieth to twenty-first century using anthropogenic and natural forcings for the twentieth century and the A1B scenario for the twenty-first century. The other 29 members use a perturbation in the atmosphere at year 2000 and are run until 2061. Since the IPO has been recognized as a dominant contributor to decadal variability in the Pacific, information late in the twentieth century and early in the twenty-first century is used to select a subset of ensemble members that are more skillful in tracking the time evolution of the IPO (EOF2) in relation to a notional start date of 2010. Predictions for the 19-yr period centered on the year 2020 use that subset of ensemble members to construct Pacific SST patterns based on the predicted evolution of the first three EOFs. Compared to the perfect model reference simulation, the predictions show some skill for Pacific SST predictions with anomaly pattern correlations greater than +0.5. An application of the Pacific SST prediction is made to precipitation over North America and Australia. Even though there are additional far-field influences on Pacific SSTs and North American and Australian precipitation involving the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) in the Atlantic, and Indian Ocean and South Asian monsoon variability, there is qualitative skill for the pattern of predicted precipitation over North America and Australia using predicted Pacific SSTs. This exercise shows that, in the presence of a large forced trend like that in the large ensemble, much of Pacific region decadal predictability about 20 years into the future arises from increasing greenhouse gases.