Mean sea surface temperature changes influence ENSO-related precipitation changes in the mid-latitudes

Young-Min Yang, Jae-Heung Park, Soon-Il An (), Bin Wang () and Xiao Luo
Additional contact information
Young-Min Yang: Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
Jae-Heung Park: Pohang University of Science and Technology
Soon-Il An: Pohang University of Science and Technology
Bin Wang: Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
Xiao Luo: University of Hawaii

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract El Niño profoundly impacts precipitation in high-population regions. This demands an advanced understanding of the changes in El Niño-induced precipitation under the future global warming scenario. However, thus far, consensus is lacking regarding future changes in mid-latitude precipitation influenced by El Niño. Here, by analyzing the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project simulations, we show that future precipitation changes are tightly linked to the response of each type of El Niño to the tropical Pacific mean sea surface temperature (SST) change. A La Niña-like mean SST change intensifies basin-wide El Niño events causing approximately 20% more precipitation over East Asia and North America via enhancing moisture transport. Meanwhile, an El Niño-like mean SST change generates more frequent eastern Pacific El Niño events, enhancing precipitation in North American. Our findings highlight the importance of the mean SST projection in selectively influencing the types of El Niño and their remote impact on precipitation.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21787-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-21787-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21787-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().