Impact of Northern Atlantic Ocean warming on the North Pacific subtropical gyre

Synchronous changes in the atmospheric and oceanic circulations were observed in the North Pacific during the late 1990s. These changes significantly influence regional climate, typhoon development, fisheries, and the environment. In this study, observational analyses and numerical modeling experiments were carried out to link synchronous climate changes in the Pacific during the 1990’s to transbasin influences from the Atlantic Ocean. During the positive phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), the anomalously warm North Atlantic triggers a series of zonally symmetric and asymmetric transbasin teleconnections involving the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), Walker and Hadley circulations, and Rossby wave propagation that lead to a decrease in wind stress curls over the Pacific subtropics, resulting in an abrupt weakening in the North Pacific subtropical gyre (NPSG).