Increasing intensity of El Niño in the central‐equatorial Pacific

[1] Satellite observations suggest that the intensity of El Niiio events in the central equatorial Pacific (CP) has almost doubled in the past three decades, with the strongest warming occurring in 2009-10. This is related to the increasing intensity as well as occurrence frequency of the so-called CP El Niiio events since the 1990s. While sea surface temperature (SST) in the CP region during El Nino years has been increasing, those during neutral and La Nina years have not. Therefore, the well-documented warming trend of the warm pool in the CP region is primarily a result of more intense El Nino events rather than a general rise of background SST.

[1]  Swadhin K. Behera,et al.  El Niño Modoki and its possible teleconnection , 2007 .

[2]  Toshio Yamagata,et al.  Climate change: The El Niño with a difference. , 2009, Nature.

[3]  Seon Tae Kim,et al.  Three evolution patterns of Central‐Pacific El Niño , 2010 .

[4]  Tong Lee,et al.  Subtropics-Related Interannual Sea Surface Temperature Variability in the Central Equatorial Pacific , 2010 .

[5]  Swadhin K. Behera,et al.  Anomalous winter climate conditions in the Pacific rim during recent El Niño Modoki and El Niño events , 2009 .

[6]  A. Fedorov,et al.  Is El Nino changing? , 2000, Science.

[7]  Dongxiao Zhang,et al.  Observed freshening and warming of the western Pacific Warm Pool , 2009 .

[8]  Thomas M. Smith,et al.  Daily High-Resolution-Blended Analyses for Sea Surface Temperature , 2007 .

[9]  M. Latif,et al.  Greenhouse Warming, Decadal Variability, or El Niño? An Attempt to Understand the Anomalous 1990s , 1997 .

[10]  Dongxiao Zhang,et al.  Slowdown of the meridional overturning circulation in the upper Pacific Ocean , 2002, Nature.

[11]  Judith A. Curry,et al.  Impact of Shifting Patterns of Pacific Ocean Warming on North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones , 2009, Science.

[12]  M. Mcphaden,et al.  Asymmetry in zonal phase propagation of ENSO sea surface temperature anomalies , 2009 .

[13]  Tong Lee,et al.  Decadal phase change in large‐scale sea level and winds in the Indo‐Pacific region at the end of the 20th century , 2008 .

[14]  B. Kirtman,et al.  El Niño in a changing climate , 2009, Nature.

[15]  F. Jin,et al.  Two Types of El Nio Events: Cold Tongue El Nio and Warm Pool El Nio , 2009 .

[16]  D. E. Harrison,et al.  Global seasonal temperature and precipitation anomalies during El Niño autumn and winter , 2005 .

[17]  R. Seager,et al.  Twentieth-Century Sea Surface Temperature Trends , 1997, Science.

[18]  H. Kao.  Eastern Pacific and central Pacific types of ENSO , 2009 .