Anomalous Atmospheric Hydrologic Processes Associated with ENSO: Mechanisms of Hydrologic Cycle–Radiation Interaction

Abstract

Using reanalysis data from the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) Data Assimilation System, the authors have documented the basic three-dimensional features of anomalous atmospheric hydrologic processes observed during the El Niño?Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The most dominant anomaly pattern features a pair of subtropical temperature maxima straddling the equator in the upper troposphere coupled to a corresponding pair of temperature minima in the lower stratosphere in the form of a dipole. Over the Tropics and subtropics, the water vapor content is increased in regions of large-scale ascent with maximum response in the middle troposphere, whereas substantial drying is found in the descending branches of the Walker and Hadley circulations. While the temperature and moisture patterns in the lower troposphere are thermodynamically linked to the sea surface temperature anomaly pattern, the distribution of temperature and water vapor in the upper troposphere is largely controlled by dynamics and much less by thermodynamics. The troposphere?stratosphere temperature dipole is fundamentally due to the rising of the tropopause associated with hydrostatic expansion and vertical ascent in regions of enhanced deep convection. The rising motion pushes colder upper-tropospheric air into the lower stratosphere where the climatological temperature gradient reverses. No such dipole anomaly exists in the moisture field. Numerical experiments with the GEOS GCM show that while atmospheric dynamics are principally responsible for the generation of the basic structures of the temperature and moisture anomalies observed during ENSO, the interaction between the hydrologic cycle and radiation plays an important role in enhancing and modifying the response. The role of hydrologic cycle?radiation interaction is most important in rendering the atmosphere more unstable both columnwise and locally, through enhanced longwave heating in the middle and lower troposphere and cooling above. The enhanced instability leads to intensified Hadley and Walker circulations, which are accompanied by stronger latent heating and a more vigorous hydrologic cycle. The intensified hydrologic cycle promotes further warming and moistening of the middle and lower troposphere, and cooling and drying in the stratosphere. The radiation?dynamics feedback leads to a new equilibrium climate state in which the increased heat transport by convection into the upper troposphere and stratosphere is balanced by increased radiative cooling, which removes the local excessive heat buildup.