The role of easterly wind surges in La Niña and El Niño events

Abstract:

The processes responsible for the onset of La Niña events have not received the same attention as those responsible for the onset of El Niño events, for which Westerly Wind Events (WWEs) in the tropical Pacific have been identified as important contributors. We have previously shown that equatorial Pacific WWE wind stress composites in the years following the large El Niño event of 1997/98 are very like their pre-97-98 counterparts except that they also include an easterly anomaly element over the cold tongue. We have argued that this easterly component modifies the oceanic response so that warming is concentrated in the central equatorial Pacific. This significant change in forced SST anomaly results from the fact that a relatively small increase in easterly wind speed, acting on top of the background easterly trade winds, is sufficient to produce a stress anomaly comparable in magnitude to that of the westerly wind event and thereby produce current anomalies to balance out most of the cold tongue warming that would otherwise be driven by the WWE wind stresses. Motivated by the large effect of these “Easterly Wind Surges” (EWSs) we have examined their occurrence statistics and effects on ENSO-related sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the period over which the TAO/TRITON buoy wind observations are available for verification. We find that EWSs are a prominent component of equatorial Pacific wind stress variability and play an important role in the onset and development of La Niña events akin to the role that Westerly Wind Events play in El Niño events. EWSs also help shape amplitude and pattern development of El Niño SSTAs. We examine how well recent ENSO-related sea surface temperature development can be accounted for by paying attention to the occurrence of each year’s westerly and easterly wind events.