Indian Ocean Capacitor Effect on Indo–Western Pacific Climate during the Summer following El Niño

Abstract Significant climate anomalies persist through the summer (June–August) after El Niño dissipates in spring over the equatorial Pacific. They include the tropical Indian Ocean (TIO) sea surface temperature (SST) warming, increased tropical tropospheric temperature, an anomalous anticyclone over the subtropical northwest Pacific, and increased mei-yu–baiu rainfall over East Asia. The cause of these lingering El Niño effects during summer is investigated using observations and an atmospheric general circulation model (GCM). The results herein indicate that the TIO warming acts like a capacitor anchoring atmospheric anomalies over the Indo–western Pacific Oceans. It causes tropospheric temperature to…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China
• CA
  Chinese Academy of Sciences
• JA
  Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology