The ENSO-Related West Pacific Sea Surface Temperature Gradient

What Controls the Mean East–West Sea Surface Temperature Gradient in the Equatorial Pacific: The Role of Cloud Albedo

Themean east–west sea surface temperature gradient along the equator is a key feature of tropical climate. Tightly coupled to the atmospheric Walker circulation and the oceanic east–west thermocline tilt, it effectively defines tropical climate conditions. In the Pacific, its presence permits the El Ni~ no–SouthernOscillation phenomenon. What determines this temperature gradient within the full...

Observed Strengthening of the Zonal Sea Surface Temperature Gradient across the Equatorial Pacific Ocean*

Decadal variations of very small amplitude [;0.38C in sea surface temperature (SST)] in the tropical Pacific Ocean, the genesis region of the interannual El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, have been shown to have powerful impacts on global climate. Future projections from different climate models do not agree on how this critical feature will change under the influence of anthropog...

Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies: A Possible Trigger for ENSO

Pacific sea surface temperature and the winter of 2014

It is shown from historical data and from modeling experiments that a proximate cause of the cold winter in North America in 2013–2014 was the pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) in the Pacific Ocean. Each of the three dominant modes of SST variability in the Pacific is connected to the tropics and has a strong expression in extratropical SST and weather patterns. Beginning in the middle o...

A model of the tropical Pacific sea surface temperature climatology

A model for the climatological mean sea surface temperature (SST) of the tropical Pacific Ocean is developed. The upper ocean response is computed using a time dependent, linear, reduced gravity model, with the addition of a constant depth frictional surface layer. The full three-dimensional temperature equation and a surface heat flux parameterization that requires pecification ofonly wind spe...