Role of Nonlinear Atmospheric Response to SST on the Asymmetric Transition Process of ENSO

Abstract

Abstract Physical processes that are responsible for the asymmetric transition processes between El Niño and La Niña events are investigated by using observational data and physical models to examine the nonlinear atmospheric response to SST. The air–sea coupled system of ENSO is able to remain in a weak, cold event for up to 2 yr, while the system of a relatively warm event turns into a cold phase. Through analysis of the oceanic observational data, it is found that there is a strong difference in thermocline variations in relation to surface zonal wind anomalies in the equatorial Pacific (EP) during the mature-to-decaying phase of ENSO. The atmospheric response for the warm phase of ENSO causes a rapid reduction of the EP westerlies in boreal winter, which play a role in hastening the following ENSO transition through the generation of upwelling oceanic Kelvin waves. However, the anomalous EP easterlies in the cold phase persist to the subsequent spring, which tends to counteract the turnabout from the cold to warm phase of ENSO. A suite of idealized atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) experiments are performed by imposing two different ENSO-related SST anomalies, which have equal amplitudes but opposite signs. The nonlinear climate response in the AGCM is found at the mature-to-decaying phase of ENSO that closely resembles the observations, including a zonal and meridional shift in the equatorial positions of the atmospheric wind. By using a simple ocean model, it is determined that the asymmetric responses of the equatorial zonal wind result in different recovery times of the thermocline in the eastern Pacific. Thus, the differences in transition processes between the warm and cold ENSO event are fundamentally due to the nonlinear atmospheric response to SST, which originates from the distribution of climatological SST and its seasonal changes. By including the asymmetric wind responses the intermediate air–sea coupled model herein demonstrates that the essential elements of the redevelopment of La Niña arise from the nonlinear atmospheric response to SST anomalies.