Why Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation has emerged since the mid-20th century

Abstract

Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation (PQDO) is one component of the multi-time-scale tropical Pacific decadal variability, with a variability center in the equatorial central Pacific (ECP). PQDO has emerged since the 1950s and has a significant impact on decadal climate variability over Asia and North America and Pacific storms. However, why it has intensified since the 1950s remains unknown. Here we test two competing hypotheses, (1) 11-year solar cycle forcing and (2) internal variability arising from El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) asymmetry, by analyzing simulation results, including one fixed-forcing control (CTRL) experiment and four sensitive experiments with millennial spectral solar irradiance (SSI), obtained from the Community Earth System Model–Last Millennium Ensemble modeling project. The four-member ensemble-averaged SSI experiments suggest that 11-year solar irradiance forcing cannot excite PQDO without stratospheric amplification of solar forcing. By analyzing 144 years of observations and the CTRL experiment, we find that the PQDO is nonstationary, and consecutive La Niña-induced decadal variability can boost PQDO in the ECP. El Niño could induce decadal ENSO signals in the NINO3.4 region but not in PQDO regions. The negative phase of PQDO tends to follow the occurrence of multi-year La Niña. We suggest that the emergence of PQDO since the 1950s is mainly due to the increase in multi-year La Niña events.

Keywords

• Pacific quasi-decadal oscillation
• ENSO
• tropical Pacific decadal variability
• multi-year La Niña events
• 11-year solar cycle
• climate simulations