Identification

Title

ENSO bimodality and extremes

Abstract

Tropical sea surface temperature (SST) and winds vary on a wide range of timescales and have a substantial impact on weather and climate across the globe. Here we study the variability of SST and zonal wind during El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) between 1982 and 2014. We focus on changes in extreme statistics using higher-order moments of SST and zonal winds. We find that ENSO characteristics exhibit bimodal distributions and fat tails with extreme warm and cold temperatures in 1982-1999, but not during 2000-2014. The changes in the distributions coincide with changes in the intensity of ENSO events and the phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. We also find that the strongest Easterly Wind Bursts occur during extreme El Ninos and not during La Ninas. Maps of SST kurtosis can serve as a diagnostic for the thermocline feedback mechanism responsible for the differences in ENSO diversity between the two periods.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7xk8jnj

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2019-05-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact