Authors: Zhaoyang Song Mojib Latif Wonsun Park Uta KrebsKanzow Birgit Schneider
Publish Date: 2016/08/03
Volume: 48, Issue: 11-12, Pages: 3725-3740
Abstract
The El Niño/Southern Oscillation ENSO is the leading mode of tropical Pacific interannual variability in the presentday climate Available proxy evidence suggests that ENSO also existed during past climates for example during the Pliocene extending from about 53 million to about 26 million years BP Here we investigate the influences of the Panama Seaway closing and Indonesian Passages narrowing and also of atmospheric carbon dioxide CO2 on the tropical Pacific mean climate and annual cycle and their combined impact on ENSO during the Pliocene To this end the Kiel Climate Model a global climate model is employed to study the influences of the changing geometry and CO2concentration We find that ENSO is sensitive to the closing of the Panama Seaway with ENSO amplitude being reduced by about 15–20 The narrowing of the Indonesian Passages enhances ENSO strength but only by about 6 ENSO period changes are modest and the spectral ENSO peak stays rather broad Annual cycle changes are more prominent An intensification of the annual cycle by about 50 is simulated in response to the closing of the Panama Seaway which is largely attributed to the strengthening of meridional wind stress In comparison to the closing of the Panama Seaway the narrowing of the Indonesian Passages only drives relatively weak changes in the annual cycle A robust relationship is found such that ENSO amplitude strengthens when the annual cycle amplitude weakensThis study was supported by the Excellence Cluster “The Future Ocean” at Kiel University and the SFB 754 “ClimateBiogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean” which both are sponsored by the German Science Foundation DFG The model simulations were conducted at the Computing Center of Kiel University Zhaoyang Song is a PhD student sponsored by the Chinese Scholarship Council CSC
Keywords: