The Role of the Halted Baroclinic Mode at the Central Equatorial Pacific in El Nino Event
Abstract
The role of halted "baroclinic modes" in the central equatorial Pacific is analyzed. It is found that dominant anomaly signals corresponding the "baroclinic modes" occur in the upper layer of the equatorial Pacific, in a two-and-a-half layer oceanic model, in assimilated results of a simple OGCM and in the ADCP observation of TAO. A second "baroclinic mode" is halted in the central equatorial Pacific corresponding to a positive SST anomaly while the first "baroclinic mode" propagates eastwards in the eastern equatorial Pacific is explained by a staged ocean-atmosphere interaction mechanism in the formation of El Nino: the westerly bursts in boreal winter over the western equatorial Pacific generate the halted second "baroclinic mode" in the central equatorial Pacific, leading to the increase of heat content and temperature in the upper layer of the central Pacific which induces the shift of convection from over the western equatorial Pacific to the central equatorial Pacific; another wider, westerly anomaly burst is induced over the western region of convection above the central equatorial Pacific and the westerly anomaly burst generates the first "baroclinic mode" propagating to the eastern equatorial Pacific, resulting in a warm event in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The mechanism presented in this paper reveals that the central equatorial Pacific is a key region in detecting the possibility of ENSO and, by analyzing TAO observation data of ocean currents and temperature in the central equatorial Pacific, in predicting the coming of an El Nino several months ahead.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA479547
Entities
People
- Jilin Sun
- Peter C. Chu
- Qinyu Liu
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School