The Signature of ENSO in Global Temperature and Precipitation Fields Derived from the Microwave Sounding Unit

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Abstract
Global temperature anomalies associated with ENSO are investigated, making use of a 13-year record of gridded temperature and precipitation data from the microwave sounding unit (MSU). The warm phase of the ENSO cycle during this period was characterized by an overall warming of the tropical troposphere, superimposed upon a distinctive equatorially symmetric dumbbell-shaped pattern straddling the equator near 140°W, accompanied by negative anomalies along the equator over the western Pacific. By means of singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis it is shown that this pattern fluctuated in phase with the displacements of convective activity over the equatorial Pacific, as reflected in the anomalies in outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and MSU precipitation fields. Fluctuations in mean tropical tropospheric temperature lagged the OLR anomalies and the related temperature pattern by about 3 months. The same dumbbell-shaped pattern was evident, with reversed polarity, in the lower stratosphere, tog... Abstract Global temperature anomalies associated with ENSO are investigated, making use of a 13-year record of gridded temperature and precipitation data from the microwave sounding unit (MSU). The warm phase of the ENSO cycle during this period was characterized by an overall warming of the tropical troposphere, superimposed upon a distinctive equatorially symmetric dumbbell-shaped pattern straddling the equator near 140°W, accompanied by negative anomalies along the equator over the western Pacific. By means of singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis it is shown that this pattern fluctuated in phase with the displacements of convective activity over the equatorial Pacific, as reflected in the anomalies in outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) and MSU precipitation fields. Fluctuations in mean tropical tropospheric temperature lagged the OLR anomalies and the related temperature pattern by about 3 months. The same dumbbell-shaped pattern was evident, with reversed polarity, in the lower stratosphere, tog...

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