Simulating the Mutual Forcing of Anomalous High Southern Latitude Atmospheric Circulation by El Niño Flavors and the Southern Annular Mode*

Numerical simulations using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) are conducted based on tropical forcing of El Nino flavors. Though these events occur on a continuum, two general types are simulated based on sea surface temperature anomalies located in the central (CP) or eastern (EP) tropical Pacific. The goal is to assess whether CAM adequately represents the transient eddy dynamics associated with each of these El Nino flavors under different southern annular mode (SAM) regimes. CAM captures well the wide spatial and temporal variability associated with the SAM but only accurately simulates the impacts on atmospheric circulation in the high southern latitudes when the observed SAM phase is matched by the model. Composites of in-phase (El Nino–SAM−) and out-of-phase (El Nino–SAM+) events confirm a seasonal preference for in-phase (out of phase) events during December–February (DJF) [June–August (JJA)]. Modeled in-phase events for both EP (during DJF) and ...