A Review of Atmosphere–Ocean Forcings Outside the Tropical Pacific on the El Niño–Southern Oscillation Occurrence

Abstract

The El Niño⁻Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the strongest interannual air⁻sea coupled variability mode in the tropics, and substantially impacts the global weather and climate. Hence, it is important to improve our understanding of the ENSO variability. Besides the well-known air⁻sea interaction process over the tropical Pacific, recent studies indicated that atmospheric and oceanic forcings outside the tropical Pacific also play important roles in impacting and modulating the ENSO occurrence. This paper reviews the impacts of the atmosphere⁻ocean variability outside the tropical Pacific on the ENSO variability, as well as their associated physical processes. The review begins with the contribution of the atmosphere⁻ocean forcings over the extratropical North Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Ocean on the ENSO occurrence. Then, an overview of the extratropical atmospheric forcings over the Northern Hemisphere (including the Arctic Oscillation and the Asian monsoon systems) and the Southern Hemisphere (including the Antarctic Oscillation and the Pacific⁻South American teleconnection), on the ENSO occurrence, is presented. It is shown that the westerly (easterly) wind anomaly over the tropical western Pacific is essential for the occurrence of an El Niño (a La Niña) event. The wind anomalies over the tropical western Pacific also play a key role in relaying the impacts of the atmosphere⁻ocean forcings outside the tropical Pacific on the ENSO variability. Finally, some relevant questions, that remain to be explored, are discussed.

Keywords

• El Niño–Southern Oscillation
• extratropical atmospheric forcing
• oceanic forcing
• westerly wind anomalies
• tropical western pacific