Journal
CLIMATE DYNAMICS
Volume 53, Issue 7-8, Pages 3771-3789Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00382-019-04746-9
Keywords
El Nino/Southern Oscillation; Sea surface temperature bias; North Pacific teleconnections; Rainfall over California; Perturbed physics ensemble; CMIP5
Categories
Funding
- Swiss National Science Foundation [PP00P2_170523]
- German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) [03G0837A]
- [754]
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) [PP00P2_170523] Funding Source: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
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Precipitation in California is modulated by variability in the tropical Pacific associated with El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO): more rainfall is expected during El Nino episodes, and reduced rainfall during La Nina. It has been suggested that besides the shape and location of the sea surface temperature ( SST) anomaly this remote connection depends on the strength and location of the atmospheric convection response in the tropical Pacific. Here we show in a perturbed physics ensemble of the Kiel Climate Model and CMIP5 models that due to a cold equatorial SST bias many climate models are in a La Nina-like mean state, resulting in a too westward position of the rising branch of the Pacific Walker Circulation. This in turn results in a convective response along the equator during ENSO events that is too far west in comparison to observations. This effect of the equatorial cold SST bias is not restricted to the tropics, moreover it leads to a too westward SLP response in the North Pacific and too westward precipitation response that does not reach California. Further we show that climate models with a reduced equatorial cold SST bias have a more realistic representation of the spatial asymmetry of the teleconnections between El Nino and La Nina.
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