Hindcast of the 1976/77 and 1998/99 climate shifts in the Pacific.

Ding, Hui, Greatbatch, Richard John , Latif, Mojib , Park, Wonsun and Gerdes, Rüdiger (2013) Hindcast of the 1976/77 and 1998/99 climate shifts in the Pacific. Open Access Journal of Climate, 26 . pp. 7650-7661. DOI 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00626.1.

[thumbnail of jcli-d-12-00626.1-1.pdf]
Preview
Text
jcli-d-12-00626.1-1.pdf - Published Version

Download (3MB) | Preview

Supplementary data:

Abstract

The use of a coupled ocean/atmosphere/sea-ice model to hindcast (i.e. historical forecast) recent climate variability is described and illustrated for the cases of the 1976/77 and 1998/99 climate shift events in the Pacific. The initialization is achieved by running the coupled model in partially coupled mode whereby global observed wind stress anomalies are used to drive the ocean/sea-ice component of the coupled model while maintaining the thermodynamic coupling between the ocean/sea-ice and atmosphere components. Here we show that hindcast experiments can successfully capture many features associated with the 1976/77 and 1998/99 climate shifts. For instance, hindcast experiments started from the beginning of 1976 can capture sea surface temperature (SST) warming in the central-eastern equatorial Pacific and the positive phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) throughout the 9 years following the 1976/77 climate shift, including the deepening of the Aleutian low pressure system. Hindcast experiments started from the beginning of 1998 can also capture part of the anomalous conditions during the 4 years after the 1998/99 climate. We argue that the dynamical adjustment of heat content anomalies that are present in the initial conditions in the tropics is important for the successful hindcast of the two climate shifts.

Document Type: Article
Funder compliance: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/212643
Additional Information: WOS:000324753900021
Keywords: ENSO, North Pacific Oscillation, Pacific decadal oscillation, Climate prediction, Hindcasts, Model initialization
Research affiliation: OceanRep > GEOMAR > FB1 Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics > FB1-TM Theory and Modeling
OceanRep > GEOMAR > FB1 Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics > FB1-ME Maritime Meteorology
HGF-AWI
Kiel University
Refereed: Yes
Open Access Journal?: No
Publisher: AMS (American Meteorological Society)
Projects: MODINI, MiKlip, THOR, KCM
Expeditions/Models/Experiments:
Date Deposited: 03 Apr 2013 09:54
Last Modified: 04 Aug 2020 09:28
URI: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/20815

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item