CMIP 6 models simulation of the connection between North/South Pacific Meridional Mode and ENSO

The subtropical North and South Pacific Meridional Modes(NPMM and SPMM)are well known precursors of El Niño-Southern Oscillation(ENSO).However,relationship between them is not constant.In the early 1980,the relationship experienced an interdecadal transition.Changes in this connection can be attributed mainly to the phase change of the Pacific decadal oscillation(PDO).During the positive phase of PDO,a shallower thermocline in the central Pacific is responsible for the stronger trade wind charging(TWC)mechanism,which leads to a stronger equatorial subsurface temperature evolution.This dynamic process strengthens the connection between NPMM and ENSO.Associated with the negative phase of PDO,a shallower thermocline over southeastern Pacific allows an enhanced wind-evaporation-SST(WES)feedback,strengthening the connection between SPMM and ENSO.Using 35 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6(CMIP6)models,we examined the NPMM/SPMM performance and its connection with ENSO in the historical runs.The great majority of CMIP6 models can reproduce the pattern of NPMM and SPMM well,but they reveal discrepant ENSO and NPMM/SPMM relationship.The intermodal uncertainty for the connection of NPMM-ENSO is due to different TWC mechanism.A stronger TWC mechanism will enhance NPMM forcing.For SPMM,few models can simulate a good relationship with ENSO.The intermodel spread in the relationship of SPMM and ENSO owing to SST bias in the southeastern Pacific,as WES feedback is stronger when the southeastern Pacific is warmer.

ENSO-Dependent and ENSO-Independent Variability over the Mid-Latitude North Pacific: Observation and Air-Sea Coupled Model Simulation

During El Niño events, the warm anomalies in the eastern tropical Pacific are seen to occur in conjunction with prominent warm anomalies in the North Pacific SSTs off the west coast of North America as well as with cold anomalies in the central North Pacific. This kind of North Pacific response to ENSO is examined in observational data and IPSL air-sea coupled model simulations. Analyses based on observational data and the model output data both support the hypothesis of an “atmospheric bridge concept”, i.e., the atmospheric response to ENSO, in turn, forces the extra-tropical SST anomalies associated with the El Ninno event, thereby serving as a bridge between the tropical and extra-tropical Pacific. Regarding the mechanism responsible for this, the ocean dynamical response to the atmospheric forcing is suggested to be active, while the contribution of latent heat flux is also significant. The role of solar radiation, longwave radiation, and sensible heat flux are of minor importance however, as indicated in the model. Further analysis shows that the North Pacific mode, which is linearly independent of ENSO, resembles the El Niño-type SST mode in the northern Pacific, i.e. both take the pattern of a zonally-oriented dipole in the subtropical Pacific, though differ slightly in the location of the anomaly center. The coupling between the North Pacific mode and the atmosphere is found to be mainly via air-sea heat flux exchange in the model. Both solar radiation and longwave radiation play important roles, while the contribution of latent heat flux is nearly negligible.

Subtropical Mode Water in the Northwestern Pacific

Based on the in situ XBT and other data sets, by analyzing the seasonal cycle of the mixed layer depth (MLD) and using the conservative potential vorticity (PV) as a tool, a clear description of the formation process of the North Pacific Subtropical Mode Water (NPSTMW) is presented for explaining the well known 'Stommel Demon'. The forming of NPSTMW reflects well the ventilation process of the isotherms of the permanent thermocline. The formation process can be divided into the 'ventilation' phase and the 'formation' phase. In the first phase (October-March), with large heat losses at the sea surface from October, the mixed layer deepens and correspondingly, the water mass with low PV emerges and sinks. After continual cooling from October to March, the mixed layer reaches its maximum value ( >300 m) in March. Then, in the second phase (April-June), the mixed layer shoals rapidly from April, a large part of the low PV water mass is sheltered from further air-sea interaction by the emerging seasonal thermocline, and thus forms new NPSTMW. Further analysis indicates that the formation region of warm NPSTMW (17-18℃) is limited between 140°-150°E, while the relatively cold NPSTMW (16-17℃) originates in a wider longitude range (140°-170°E).Climate features of NPSTMW are presented with the use of climatological Levitus (1994 a, b) dataset. It is shown that NPSTMW lies in the region of (130°-170°E, 22°-34°N) with core temperature ranging from about 16-19℃ and potential density around 25-25.8σθ NPSTMW has a three-dimensional structure lying below the seasonal thermocline (about 100 m deep) and reaches almost to 350m depths.

Contribution of Mesoscale Eddies to the Subduction and Transport of North Pacific Eastern Subtropical Mode Water

This study investigates the contribution of mesoscale eddies to the subduction and transport of North Pacific Eastern Subtropical Mode Water(ESTMW)using the high-frequency output of an eddy-resolved ocean model spanning the period 1994–2010.Results show that the subduction induced by mesoscale eddies accounts for about 31%of the total subduction of ESTMW formation.The volume of ESTMW trapped by anticyclonic eddies is slightly larger than that trapped by cyclonic eddies.The ESTMW trapped by all eddies in May reaches up to about 2.8×1013m3,which is approximately 16%of the total ESTMW volume.The eddy-trapped ESTMW moves primarily westward,with its meridional integration at 18°–30°N reaching about 0.17Sv,which is approximately 18%of the total zonal ESTMW transport in this direction,at 140°W.This study highlights the important role of eddies in carrying ESTMW westward over the northeastern Pacific Ocean.