Modulation of equatorial Pacific westerly/easterly wind events by the Madden–Julian oscillation and convectively-coupled Rossby waves

• Published in: Climate dynamics Vol. 46; no. 7-8; pp. 2155 - 2178
• Main Authors: Puy, Martin, Vialard, J., Lengaigne, M., Guilyardi, E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.04.2016; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Analysis; Atmospheric circulation; Climate change; Climate variability; Climatology; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; El Nino; Environmental aspects; Geophysics; Geophysics/Geodesy; Madden-Julian oscillation; Marine; Ocean currents; Oceanography; Physics; Rossby waves; Southern Oscillation; Temporal distribution; Wind; Winds; United States; Westerly wind events; Convectively-coupled Rossby waves; ENSO; Easterly wind events; Madden–Julian Oscillation
• ISSN: 0930-7575; 1432-0894
• DOI: 10.1007/s00382-015-2695-x

Synoptic wind events in the equatorial Pacific strongly influence the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) evolution. This paper characterizes the spatio-temporal distribution of Easterly (EWEs) and Westerly Wind Events (WWEs) and quantifies their relationship with intraseasonal and interannual large-scale climate variability. We unambiguously demonstrate that the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) and Convectively-coupled Rossby Waves (CRW) modulate both WWEs and EWEs occurrence probability. 86 % of WWEs occur within convective MJO and/or CRW phases and 83 % of EWEs occur within the suppressed phase of MJO and/or CRW. 41 % of WWEs and 26 % of EWEs are in particular associated with the combined occurrence of a CRW/MJO, far more than what would be expected from a random distribution (3 %). Wind events embedded within MJO phases also have a stronger impact on the ocean, due to a tendency to have a larger amplitude, zonal extent and longer duration. These findings are robust irrespective of the wind events and MJO/CRW detection methods. While WWEs and EWEs behave rather symmetrically with respect to MJO/CRW activity, the impact of ENSO on wind events is asymmetrical. The WWEs occurrence probability indeed increases when the warm pool is displaced eastward during El Niño events, an increase that can partly be related to interannual modulation of the MJO/CRW activity in the western Pacific. On the other hand, the EWEs modulation by ENSO is less robust, and strongly depends on the wind event detection method. The consequences of these results for ENSO predictability are discussed.