The relationship between the canonical ENSO and the phase transition of the Antarctic oscillation at the quasi-quadrennial timescale

A correlation analysis is performed to investigate the relationship between El Nino-Southern Oscillation （ENSO） and the Antarctic oscillation （AAO） at the quasi-quadrennial （QQ） timescale.It is found that the cold tongue index （CTI） and the AAO index （AAOI） are negatively correlated with about a 7-month lead-time,while they are positively correlated with about a 15-month lag-time.To further explore this relationship,complex empirical orthogonal function analysis is employed in the QQ sea level pressure （SLP） anomalies from 1951 to 2002.The results indicate that,during the ENSO cycle,there exists one kind of global tropical wave of wavenumber 1 （GTW1） propagating eastward.With the traveling of GTW1,the tropical SLP anomaly tends to intrude into the southern mid-latitudes.Accordingly,three strong signals travel synchronously along the circumSouth-Pacific path,and a relatively weak signal extends eastward and poleward over the South Ocean in the Atlantic-Indian Ocean sector.Following the propagation of these signals,the AAO phase tends to be reversed progressively.As a result,there exists an evident lead-lag correlation between CTI and AAOI.It can be concluded that ENSO plays a key role in the phase transition of AAO at the QQ timescale.It is also noticed that this regular relationship is only evident in the canonical ENSO events,for which sea surface temperature （SST） anomalies extend westward from the tropical eastern Pacific.On the other hand,the similar relationships are not found among those atypical ENSO events for which SST anomalies spread eastward from the central Pacific,such as the 1982-1983 ENSO event.

The linkage between two ENSO types/modes and the interdecadal changes of ENSO around the year 2000

This study focuses on the interdecadal changes in ENSO properties emerging around the year 2000. Compared to 1980-1999, after 2000, the ENSO amplitude weakened, the occurrence of the central Pacific （CP） Et Nino increased, and the eastern Pacific （EP） El Nino became suppressed. Meanwhile, the dominant period of ENSO shortened from quasi-quadrennial （QQ） to quasi-biennial （QB）. The authors show that these changes in ENSO properties are evidently consistent with the change in the stability of the ENSO mode through connecting the two ENSO types with the two coupled ENSO modes, i.e. the QQ and QB modes. It is suggested that the relative activity or stability of the two ENSO modes changed after the year 2000. The intensity of both the QQ and QB mode weakened. The QQ mode, which is linked to EP ENSO and was significantly strong during 1980-1999, became much weaker after 2000 in terms of the EP type almost disappearing. Compared with the weakness of the QQ mode, the QB mode, as manifested by the CP type, remained active and became dominant in the tropical Pacific after 2000. Analysis shows that the changes in mean states in the tropical Pacific were likely responsible for the interdecadal ENSO changes around the year 2000.

The Relationship between the Asian/ Australian Monsoon and ENSO on a Quasi-Four-Year Scale

The interannual variability of tropical zonal wind and the relationship between ENSO and the Asian / Australian monsoon in different phases are discussed. Results show that the tropical zonal wind strongly couples with the central-eastern Pacific SST on a quasi-four-year scale. During the period of El Nino, the East Asian winter (summer) monsoon is weaker (stronger) and the South Asian summer monsoon is weaker than normal. Conversely, the East Asian winter (summer) monsoon is stronger (weaker) and the South Asian summer monsoon is stronger than normal during the period of La Niña. The anomalous northerly over East Asia induces an anomalous westerly over the western equatorial Pacific, which favors the appearance of positive SST anomalies in the central-eastern Pacific. The development of El Niño requires the persistence of a westerly over the central-eastern Pacific. The convergence between anomalous northerlies from the central North Pacific (not from the East Asian continent) and anomalous southerlies from Northeast Australia favors the persistence of a westerly over the central-eastern Pacific. In particular, the anomalous southerlies from Northeast Australia play a key role in the onset of strong westerly anomalies over the tropical central-eastern Pacific.