SEMINAR: MPO Special Seminar: Dr. Tony Lee,TODAY at 3:00 p.m, Slab seminar room, S/A 103

[Sandrine Apelbaum <sapelbaum@rsmas.miami.edu>]

MPO Special Seminar

Dr. Tong (Tony) Lee

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology

"Increasing intensity of El Nino in the central-equatorial Pacific and record warming in the South Pacific and Antarctica in 2009-10"

Room: Slab Seminar Room S/A 103

Date: June 10th , 3:00 p.m.

Abstract:

Satellite data for the past three decades reveal a record-high sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly within a large mid-latitude region of the south-central Pacific (SCP) during the mature phase of the 2009-10 El Niño, with a peak magnitude that is 5 times the standard deviation of local SST anomaly and is warmer than the concurrent tropical-Pacific SST anomaly. The SCP oceanic warming was confined to the upper 50 meters and is associated with an extreme and persistent anticyclone. Wind changes associated with the anticyclone caused the oceanic warming with surface heat flux and ocean processes playing equally important roles. The anticyclone diverted circumpolar westerlies and warm air towards Antarctica. Austral-summer SST in the Bellingshausen Sea and near the Wilkins ice shelf also reached a three-decade high. The extreme atmospheric and oceanic anomalies in the South Pacific appear to be fueled by the 2009-10 El Niño because of its record-high SST anomaly in the central-equatorial Pacific (CP). Satellite observations also suggest that the strength of El Nino in the CP region has nearly doubled in three decades. This tendency, if continued, may cause more extreme warming events in the South Pacific and Antarctica.

Sandrine Apelbaum

Meteorology and Physical Oceanography 
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
University of Miami
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway
Miami, FL 33149-1098
Tel     (305) 421-4057
Fax     (305) 421-4696

sapelbaum@rsmas.miami.edu