Tropical Oceanic Response to Extratropical Thermal Forcing in a Coupled Climate Model: A Comparison between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Abstract

he tropical oceanic response to the extratropical thermal forcing is quantitatively estimated in a coupled climate model. This work focuses on comparison of the responses between the tropical Atlantic and Pacific. Under the same extratropical forcing, the tropical sea surface temperature responses are comparable. However, the responses in the tropical subsurface in the two oceans are distinct. The tropical subsurface response in the Atlantic can be twice of that in the Pacific. The maximum subsurface temperature change in the tropical Pacific occurs in the eastern lower thermocline, while that in the tropical Atlantic occurs in the west and well below the lower thermocline. The different responses in the tropical Atlantic and Pacific are closely related to the different changes in the meridional overturning circulations. The Pacific shallow overturning circulation, or the subtropical cell, tends to slow down (speed up) in response to the extratropical warming (cooling) forcing. The changes in the upwelling in the eastern equatorial Pacific as well as the shallow subduction from the extratropical southern Pacific along the eastern boundary are accountable for the eastern Pacific temperature change. The Atlantic overturning circulation consists of the shallow subtropical cell and the deep thermohaline circulation. A weakened thermohaline circulation will result in a strengthened northern subtropical cell, in which the change in the lower branch, or the low-latitude North Brazil Current, can cause strong response below the western tropical thermocline. Here the coastal Kelvin wave along the western boundary on the intermediate isopycnal level also plays an important role in the equatorward conveying of the climate anomalies in the mid-to-high-latitude Atlantic, particularly during the initial stage of the extratropical forcing.