Pantropical climate interactions

Wenju Cai, Lixin Wu, Matthieu Lengaigne, Tim Li, Shayne McGregor, Jong Seong Kug, Jin Yi Yu, Malte F. Stuecker, Agus Santoso, Xichen Li, Yoo Geun Ham, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Benjamin Ng, Michael J. McPhaden, Yan Du, Dietmar Dommenget, Fan Jia, Jules B. Kajtar, Noel Keenlyside, Xiaopei LinJing Jia Luo, Marta Martín-Rey, Yohan Ruprich-Robert, Guojian Wang, Shang Ping Xie, Yun Yang, Sarah M. Kang, Jun Young Choi, Bolan Gan, Geon-Il Kim, Chang Eun Kim, Sunyoung Kim, Jeong Hwan Kim, Ping Chang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

513 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which originates in the Pacific, is the strongest and most well-known mode of tropical climate variability. Its reach is global, and it can force climate variations of the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans by perturbing the global atmospheric circulation. Less appreciated is how the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans affect the Pacific. Especially noteworthy is the multidecadal Atlantic warming that began in the late 1990s, because recent research suggests that it has influenced Indo-Pacific climate, the character of the ENSO cycle, and the hiatus in global surface warming. Discovery of these pantropical interactions provides a pathway forward for improving predictions of climate variability in the current climate and for refining projections of future climate under different anthropogenic forcing scenarios.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbereaav4236
Number of pages11
JournalScience
Volume363
Issue number6430
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2019

Keywords

  • decadal variation
  • decadal climate
  • climate prediction

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