The Linkage between the Pacific-North American Teleconnection Pattern and the North Atlantic Oscillation

In this study, using the ECMWF reanalysis data, the possible linkage between the Pacific-North American teleconnection pattern （PNA） and the North Atlantic Oscillation （NAO） during boreal winter （December- February） is investigated. The PNA and the NAO pattern are obtained by performing Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function （REOF） analysis on an anomalous daily mean 300-hPa geopotential height field. The composite daily NAO indices show that the NAO indices are prone to be negative （positive） when the contemporary PNA indices are extremely positive （negative）. The correlation coefficients between the daily PNA and NAO indices also confirm that, indeed, there is a significant anti-correlation between the PNA and NAO indices. The correlation peaks at a lag of 0 days （meaning contemporary correlation）, and its value is 0.202. Analyses of a newly defined Rossby wave breaking index and diagnostics of the stream function tendency equation indicate that the anti-correlation between PNA and NAO may be caused by the anomalous Rossby wave breaking events associated with the PNA pattern.

Parallel Comparison of the 1982/83,1997/98 and 2015/16 Super El Nios and Their Effects on the Extratropical Stratosphere

This study uses multiple sea surface temperature （SST） datasets to perform a parallel comparison of three super El Nifios and their effects on the stratosphere. The results show that, different from ordinary El Nifios, warm SST anomalies appear earliest in the western tropical Pacific and precede the super El Nifio peak by more than 18 months. In the previous winter, relative to the mature phase of El Nifio, as a precursor, North Pacific Oscillation-like circulation anomalies are observed. A Pacific-North America （PNA） teleconnection appears in the extratropical troposphere during the mature phase, in spite of the subtle differences between the intensities, as well as the zonal position, of the PNA lobes. Related to the negative rainfall response over the tropical Indian Ocean, the PNA teleconnection in the winter of 1997/98 is the strongest among the three super El Nifios. The northern winter stratosphere shows large anomalies in the polar cap temperature and the circumpolar westerly, if the interferences from other factors are linearly filtered from the circulation data. Associated with the positive PNA response in a super El Nino winter, positive polar cap temperature anomalies and circumpolar easterly anomalies, though different in timing, are also observed in the mature winters of the three super El Nifios. The stratospheric polar vortex in the next winter relative to the 1982/83 and 1997/98 events is also anomalously weaker and warmer, and the stratospheric circulation conditions remain to be seen in the coming winter following the mature phase of the 2015/16 event.