Browsing by Author "Jin, Fei-Fei"

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    ENSO and greenhouse warming
    (Nature Research, 2015-08-17) Cai, Wenju; Santoso, Agus; Wang, Guojian; Yeh, Sang-Wook; An, Soon-II; Cobb, Kim M.; Collins, Matt; Guilyardi, Eric; Jin, Fei-Fei; Kug, Jong-Seong; Lengaigne, Matthieu; McPhaden, Michael J.; Takahashi, Ken; Timmermann, Axel; Vecchi, Gabriel; Watanabe, Masahiro; Wu, Lixin
    The El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the dominant climate phenomenon affecting extreme weather conditions worldwide. Its response to greenhouse warming has challenged scientists for decades, despite model agreement on projected changes in mean state. Recent studies have provided new insights into the elusive links between changes in ENSO and in the mean state of the Pacific climate. The projected slow-down in Walker circulation is expected to weaken equatorial Pacific Ocean currents, boosting the occurrences of eastward-propagating warm surface anomalies that characterize observed extreme El Nino events. Accelerated equatorial Pacific warming, particularly in the east, is expected to induce extreme rainfall in the eastern equatorial Pacific and extreme equatorward swings of the Pacific convergence zones, both of which are features of extreme El Nino. The frequency of extreme La Nina is also expected to increase in response to more extreme El Ninos, an accelerated maritime continent warming and surface-intensified ocean warming. ENSO-related catastrophic weather events are thus likely to occur more frequently with unabated greenhouse-gas emissions. But model biases and recent observed strengthening of the Walker circulation highlight the need for further testing as new models, observations and insights become available.
    Palabras clave:Atmospheric dynamicsClimate changeGreenhouse effect
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    Increased frequency of extreme La Niña events under greenhouse warming
    (Nature Research, 2015) Cai, Wenju; Wang, Guojian; Santoso, Agus; McPhaden, Michael J.; Wu, Lixin; Jin, Fei-Fei; Timmermann, Axel; Collins, Mat; Vecchi, Gabriel; Lengaigne, Matthieu; England, Matthew H.; Dommenget, Dietmar; Takahashi, Ken; Guilyardi, Eric
    The El Niño/Southern Oscillation is Earth’s most prominent source of interannual climate variability, alternating irregularly between El Niño and La Niña, and resulting in global disruption of weather patterns, ecosystems, fisheries and agriculture1,2,3,4,5. The 1998–1999 extreme La Niña event that followed the 1997–1998 extreme El Niño event6 switched extreme El Niño-induced severe droughts to devastating floods in western Pacific countries, and vice versa in the southwestern United States4,7. During extreme La Niña events, cold sea surface conditions develop in the central Pacific8,9, creating an enhanced temperature gradient from the Maritime continent to the central Pacific. Recent studies have revealed robust changes in El Niño characteristics in response to simulated future greenhouse warming10,11,12, but how La Niña will change remains unclear. Here we present climate modelling evidence, from simulations conducted for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (ref. 13), for a near doubling in the frequency of future extreme La Niña events, from one in every 23 years to one in every 13 years. This occurs because projected faster mean warming of the Maritime continent than the central Pacific, enhanced upper ocean vertical temperature gradients, and increased frequency of extreme El Niño events are conducive to development of the extreme La Niña events. Approximately 75% of the increase occurs in years following extreme El Niño events, thus projecting more frequent swings between opposite extremes from one year to the next.
    Palabras clave:Atmospheric dynamicsEnvironmental healthPhysical oceanography