Studies of El Niño and Interdecadal Variability in Tropical Sea Surface Temperatures Using a Nonnormal Filter

Cécile Penland; Ludmila Matrosova

doi:10.1175/jcli3951.1

journal article Nov 15, 2006

Studies of El Niño and Interdecadal Variability in Tropical Sea Surface Temperatures Using a Nonnormal Filter

Cécile Penland Ludmila Matrosova

Journal of Climate Vol. 19 No. 22 pp. 5796-5815 · American Meteorological Society

View at Publisher Save 10.1175/jcli3951.1

Abstract

Abstract
A dynamically based filter is used to separate tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) into three components: the evolving El Niño signal, the global tropical trend, and the background. The components thus isolated are not independent. On the contrary, this procedure allows us to see the importance of the interdecadal signal to the predictability of El Niño.
The data filtered in this way reveal El Niño signals in the equatorial Indian Ocean and in the north tropical Atlantic Ocean that are remarkably similar. A signature of El Niño in the south tropical Atlantic leads Niño-3.4 SST anomalies by about 9 months. The time series of a global tropical trend is found to have a very smooth parabolic structure. In unfiltered data, this trend conspires with El Niño to obscure a meridional tropical Atlantic dipole, which is significant in the filtered background SST data.

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References

Details

Published: Nov 15, 2006
Vol/Issue: 19(22)
Pages: 5796-5815

Authors

C

Cécile Penland

NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory, and CIRES/Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, Colorado

L

Ludmila Matrosova

NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory, and CIRES/Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, Colorado

Cite This Article

Cécile Penland, Ludmila Matrosova (2006). Studies of El Niño and Interdecadal Variability in Tropical Sea Surface Temperatures Using a Nonnormal Filter. Journal of Climate, 19(22), 5796-5815. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli3951.1

Studies of El Niño and Interdecadal Variability in Tropical Sea Surface Temperatures Using a Nonnormal Filter

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