Scientific Calendar Event



Starts 26 Jan 2023 14:00
Ends 26 Jan 2023 15:30
Central European Time
Via Beirut, exSISSA bldg
Common Area, 2nd floor
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Abstract:
The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) underwent a major shift in in the 1970’s, becoming stronger and more predictable. This shift has been attributed to changes in the tropical Pacific mean state. However, around the 1970’s, tropical Atlantic – Pacific variability became coupled, with Atlantic SST leading opposite signed changes in the Pacific by around 6-months. Here we assess the role of the Atlantic in driving the ENSO regime shift using pacemaker experiments with two climate models: ECHAM5/MPIOM and SPEEDY/RGO. In these experiments, model SST is restored to observations in the tropical Atlantic, while elsewhere the models are fully coupled. Both models capture the observed changes in inter-basin interactions and strengthening on ENSO variability after the 1970’s. The warming of the equatorial and south Atlantic and southward shift of the inter-tropical convergence zone causes inter-basin interactions to become active after the 1970’s in the models. In ECHAM5/MPIOM, this leads to Atlantic Niño variability driving increased ENSO activity. In SPEEDY/RGO, the increase in ENSO activity appears more related to induced mean state changes in the Pacific.