HR: 16:20h
AN: A34A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: The relationship between equatorial Atlantic SST and EL Ni?o
AU: * Kushnir, Y
EM: kushnir@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont DOherty Earth Observatory, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AB: During the boreal summer SST variability in the tropical Atlantic is governed by a an equatorially confined pattern of variability, with a maximum in the eastern side of the Basin, reminiscent of El Ni?o. A modeling study of this mode of variability by Zebiak (1993) suggests that it is governed by similar dynamics but that it is not self-sustained. There is evidence that one of the ways by which it is invoked is linked with the evolution of the Pacific El Ni?o. Here we investigate this link and find that it is tends to change with time on multi-decadal times scales: strong in the first and last few decades of the 20 Century and weak in between. We describe the nature of this link as exhibited by the seasonal behavior of SST and speculate regarding the reasons for its non-stationarity.
DE: 3339 Ocean/atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504)
DE: 4215 Climate and interannual variability (3309)
DE: 4263 Ocean prediction
DE: 3309 Climatology (1620)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting