Atmospheric Response to SST Anomalies. Part II: Background-State Dependence, Teleconnections, and Local Effects in Summer

• DOI: 10.1175/jas-d-17-0298.1
• Publication Date: 2018-09-19T18:14:12Z
• Authors: Stephen I. Thomson; Geoffrey K. Vallis
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 0207 environmental engineering; 02 engineering and technology; 14. Life underwater; 551; 16. Peace & justice; 530; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Abstract In this paper and its companion, Part I, we explore the response of the atmosphere to sea surface temperature anomalies in different geographical locations and seasons. In Part I, we focused on Northern Hemisphere winter (DJF), whereas in this paper, Part II, we focus on summer (JJA) and interseasonal comparisons. We use two different configurations of the same idealized atmospheric model, constructed using two different configurations of continents and topography. These configurations give rise to slightly different background wind fields and variability within the same season and therefore give a measure of how robust a response is to small changes in the background state. We characterize the types of responses that are found to SST anomalies in the midlatitudes and tropics in JJA and compare these with the two corresponding responses in DJF. We find that the responses to midlatitude SST anomalies in JJA are generally on a much smaller spatial scale than those in DJF. Responses in the tropical Pacific are much less dependent on season, although teleconnections between the tropical Pacific and the North Atlantic are not found in JJA as robustly as they are in DJF. Given insight from our model results, however, we do find some summer periods in reanalysis data where there is a strong association between the tropical Pacific and the summer North Atlantic Oscillation. We discuss the reasons for these effects and the implications for Northern Hemisphere seasonal prediction in summer.