Nonlinearity of the Extratropical Response to Tropical Forcing

Abstract

A primitive equations dry atmospheric model is used to investigate the atmospheric response to a tropical diabatic forcing pattern and explore how the atmospheric response changes as a function of the amplitude of the forcing. The forcing anomaly represents a linear fit of the model forcing to a tropical SST pattern of an El Niño/La Niña type. The time-averaged 500-hPa geopotential height anomaly responses of two long integrations, with forcing anomalies of equal amplitudes but opposite signs, show an asymmetric feature that is similar to observations and to previous modeling results related to El Niño and La Niña. Ensemble experiments with 61 different amplitudes of this forcing pattern are conducted. An EOF analysis of the ensemble mean of the 90-day-averaged 500-hPa height for different amplitudes of forcings shows that the leading mode of the forced variability resembles the Pacific?North American (PNA) pattern, while the second mode is a wave train across the North Atlantic to Eurasia. The relationship between the amplitude of the PNA mode and the amplitude of the forcing is linear, while the amplitude of the Atlantic/Eurasian mode has a nearly parabolic relationship with the amplitude of the forcing. A set of linear experiments with forcing perturbations and eddy flux anomalies associated with the positive and negative amplitudes of forcing conditions indicates that the nonlinearity of the extratropical response primarily results from the modification of the ?basic state? caused by the large-amplitude forcing and the subsequent sensitivity of the response to that modified basic flow. A La Niña?type basic state yields a stronger response in the North Atlantic to the tropical Pacific forcing than does an El Niño?type basic state.