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Modulation of the seasonal footprinting mechanism by the boreal spring Arctic Oscillation
Author(s) -
Chen Shangfeng,
Chen Wen,
Yu Bin,
Graf HansF.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2013gl058628
Subject(s) - footprinting , climatology , spring (device) , arctic oscillation , boreal , oscillation (cell signaling) , arctic , environmental science , the arctic , subtropics , modulation (music) , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , chemistry , geology , physics , biology , ecology , paleontology , biochemistry , transcription factor , acoustics , gene , thermodynamics
Previous studies suggest that wintertime North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) is able to force an El Niño event during the following winter via the seasonal footprinting mechanism (SFM). In this study, we present evidence that springtime Arctic Oscillation (AO) has a significant modulation effect on the connection between the NPO and El Niño. When the spring AO is positive, a positive wintertime NPO can result in significant El Niño‐like warming anomalies via the SFM. However, when the spring AO is negative, the connection of the NPO and the El Niño is not robust at all. Thus, the phase of spring AO should be taken into account when using NPO as a predictor for El Niño. Further analysis reveals that the mechanism of the AO modulation may be through changing the underlying SST footprinting over the subtropical northeastern Pacific.