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Weakened feedback of the Indian Ocean on El Niño since the early 1990s

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Abstract

The present paper investigates changes in the feedback of Indian Ocean warming on the western Pacific by using observational data and model experiments. It is found that the relationship between easterly wind anomalies over the equatorial western Pacific and Indian Ocean warming during the mature and decaying phases of El Niño has changed since 1994. Before 1994, when El Niño reached its peak in the winter, significant warming of the entire Indian Ocean caused tropospheric temperature anomalies and emanated Kelvin waves into the western Pacific. Thus, Indian Ocean warming produced easterly wind anomalies over the western Pacific. However, significant warming of the Indian Ocean has been confined to the west of the Indian Ocean and Kelvin waves have been weakened since 1994. Therefore, the Indian Ocean has contributed less to easterly wind anomalies in the western Pacific after 1994. Changes in the intensity and pattern of the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) mode may be responsible for these results. After 1994, the intensity of the IOD, especially the intensity of the cold component of the IOD mode, has become stronger, resulting in Indian Ocean warming being confined to the west of the Indian Ocean. These results are confirmed by numerical model experiments. The paper also discusses the enhancement in the feedback of the north tropical Atlantic on El Niño after 1994.

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Acknowledgements

We thank five reviewers whose comments and suggestions have helped improve the manuscript. This study is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFA0606701), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41731173), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB42000000 and XDA20060502), Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (GML2019ZD0306), Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISEE2018PY06), and the Leading Talents of Guangdong Province Program. The numerical computation is supported by the High-Performance Computing Division in the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Xiang Han & Chunzai Wang

  2. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511458, China

    Chunzai Wang

  3. Innovation Academy of South China Sea Ecology and Environmental Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510000, China

    Chunzai Wang

  4. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiang Han

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  1. Xiang Han
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Han, X., Wang, C. Weakened feedback of the Indian Ocean on El Niño since the early 1990s. Clim Dyn 57, 879–894 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05745-5

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