Seasonal Evolution of Dominant Modes in South Pacific SST and Relationship with ENSO

A season-reliant empirical orthogonal function （S-EOF） analysis was applied to the seasonal mean SST anomalies （SSTAs） based on the HadISST1 dataset with linear trend removed at every grid point in the South Pacific （60.5°-19.5°S, 139.5°E-60.5°W） during the period 1979-2009. The spatiotemporal characteristics of the dominant modes and their relationships with ENSO were analyzed. The results show that there are two seasonally evolving dominant modes of SSTAs in the South Pacific with interannual and interdeeadal variations; they account for nearly 40% of the total variance. Although the seasonal evolution of spatial patterns of the first S-EOF mode （S-EOF1） did not show remarkable propagation, it decays with season remarkably. The second S-EOF mode （S-EOF2） showed significant seasonal evolution and intensified with season, with distinct characteristics of eastward propagation of the negative SSTAs in southern New Zealand and positive SSTAs southeast of Australia. Both of these two modes have significant relationships with ENSO. These two modes correspond to the post-ENSO and ENSO turnabout years, respectively. The S- EOF1 mode associated with the decay of the eastern Pacific （EP） and the central Pacific （CP） types of ENSO exhibited a more significant relationship with the EP/CP type of E1 Nifio than that with the EP/CP type of La Nifia. The S-EOF2 mode contacted with the EP type of E1 Nifio changing into the EP/CP type of La Nifia showed a more significant connection with the EP/CP type of La Nifia.

Impact of observational MJO forcing on ENSO predictability in the Zebiak-Cane model: PartⅠ.Effect on the maximum prediction error

With the observational wind data and the Zebiak-Cane model, the impact of Madden-Iulian Oscillation （MJO） as external forcing on El Nino-Southern Oscillation （ENSO） predictability is studied. The observational data are analyzed with Continuous Wavelet Transform （CWT） and then used to extract MJO signals, which are added into the model to get a new model. After the Conditional Nonlinear Optimal Perturbation （CNOP） method has been used, the initial errors which can evolve into maximum prediction error, model errors and their join errors are gained and then the Nifio 3 indices and spatial structures of three kinds of errors are investigated. The results mainly show that the observational MJO has little impact on the maximum prediction error of ENSO events and the initial error affects much greater than model error caused by MJO forcing. These demonstrate that the initial error might be the main error source that produces uncertainty in ENSO prediction, which could provide a theoretical foundation for the adaptive data assimilation of the ENSO forecast and contribute to the ENSO target observation.

Retrieving Multi-Scale Climatic Variations from High Dimensional Time-Series MODIS Green Vegetation Cover in a Tropical/Subtropical Mountainous Island

There are knowledge gaps in our understanding of vegetation responses to multi-scale climate-related variables in tropical/subtropical mountainous islands in the Asia-Pacific region.Therefore, this study investigated inter-annual vegetation dynamics and regular/irregular climate patterns in Taiwan. We applied principal component analysis(PCA) on 11 years(2001~2011) of highdimensional monthly photosynthetically active vegetation cover(PV) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) and investigated the relationships between spatiotemporal patterns of the eigenvectors and loadings of each component through time and multi-scale climaterelated variations. Results showed that the first five components contributed to 96.4% of the total variance. The first component(PC1, explaining 94.5%of variance) loadings, as expected, were significantly correlated with the temporal dynamics of the PV(r =0.94), which was mainly governed by regional climate The temporal loadings of PC2 and PC3(0.8% and0.6% of variance, respectively) were significantly correlated with the temporal dynamics of the PV of forests(r = 0.72) and the farmlands(r = 0.80),respectively. The low-order components(PC4 and PC5, 0.3% and 0.2% of variance, respectively) were closely related to the occurrence of drought(r = 0.49)and to irregular ENSO associated climate anomalies(r =-0.54), respectively. Pronounced correlations were also observed between PC5 and the Southern Oscillation Index(SOI) with one to three months of time lags(r =-0.35 ^-0.43, respectively), revealing biophysical memory effects on the time-series pattern of the vegetation through ENSO-related rainfall patterns. Our findings reveal that the sensitivity of the ecosystems in this tropical/subtropical mountainous island may not only be regulated by regional climate and human activities but also be susceptible to largescale climate anomalies which are crucial and comparable to previous large scale analyses. This study demonstrates that PCA can be an effective tool for analyzing seasonal and inter-annual variability of vegetation dynamics across this tropical/subtropical mountainous islandin the Pacific Ocean, which provides an opportunity to forecast the responses and feedbacks of terrestrial environments to future climate scenarios.

Modulation of Convectively Coupled Kelvin Wave Activity in the Tropical Pacific by ENSO

The influence of E1 Nifio-Southern Oscillation （ENSO） on the convectively coupled Kelvin waves over the tropical Pacific is investigated by comparing the Kelvin wave activity in the eastern Pacific （EP） E1 Nifio, central Pacific （CP） E1 Nifio, and La Nifia years, respectively, to 30-yr （1982 2011） mean statistics. The convectively coupled Kelvin waves in this study are represented by the two leading modes of empirical orthogonal function （EOF） of 2-25-day band-pass filtered daily outgoing longwave radiation （OLR）, with the estimated zonal wavenumber of 3 or 4, period of 8 days, and eastward propagating speed of 17 m s-1. The most significant impact of ENSO on the Kelvin wave activity is the intensification of the Kelvin waves during the EP E1 Nifios. The impact of La Nifia on the reduction of the Kelvin wave intensity is relatively weaker, reflecting the nonlinearity of tropical deep convection and the associated Kelvin waves in response to ENSO sea surface temperature （SST） anomalies. The impact of the CP E1 Nifio on the Kelvin waves is less significant due to relatively weaker SST anomalies and smaller spatial coverage. ENSO may also alter the frequency, wavelength, and phase speed of the Kelvin waves. This study demonstrates that low- frequency ENSO SST anomalies modulate high-frequency tropical disturbances, an example of weather- climate linkage.

BIFURCATION OF THE NORTH EQUATORIAL CURRENT DERIVED FROM ALTIMETRY IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN

The gridded （1/3°＊1/3°） altimetry data from October 1992 through December 2004 were analyzed to study the seasonal and interannual variabilities of the bifurcation of the North Equatorial Current （NEC） at the surface in the western North Pacific Ocean. Calculations show that on annual average the bifurcation occurs at about 13.4°N at the surface. The geostrophic flow derived from Sea Surface Height （SSH） data shows that the southernmost latitude of the NEC bifurcation at the surface is about 12.9°N in June and the northernmost latitude is about 14.1°N in December. Correlation analyses between the bifurcation latitude and the Southern Oscillation Index （SOl） suggest that the bifurcation latitude is highly correlated with the E1 Nino/Southern Oscillation （ENSO） events. During the E1 Nino years the bifurcation of the NEC takes place at higher latitudes and vice versa.