Water vapor anomaly over the tropical western Pacific in El Niño winters from radiosonde and satellite observations and ERA5 reanalysis data

Du, Minkang; Huang, Kaiming; Zhang, Shaodong; Huang, Chunming; Gong, Yun; Yi, Fan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13553-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 17

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13553-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13553-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 17

Research article

|

10 Sep 2021

Research article |

| 10 Sep 2021

Water vapor anomaly over the tropical western Pacific in El Niño winters from radiosonde and satellite observations and ERA5 reanalysis data

Minkang Du, Kaiming Huang, Shaodong Zhang, Chunming Huang, Yun Gong, and Fan Yi

Data sets

ERA5 monthly averaged data on pressure levels from 1979 to present H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, S. Hirahara, A. Horányi, J. Muñoz‐Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, S. Abdalla, X. Abellan, G. Balsamo, P. Bechtold, G. Biavati, J. Bidlot, M. Bonavita, G. Chiara, P. Dahlgren, D. Dee, M. Diamantakis, R. Dragani, J. Flemming, R. Forbes, M. Fuentes, A. Geer, L. Haimberger, S. Healy, R. J. Hogan, E. Hólm, M. Janisková, S. Keeley, P. Laloyaux, P. Lopez, C. Lupu, G. Radnoti, P. Rosnay, I. Rozum, F. Vamborg, S. Villaume, and J. N. Thépaut https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-pressure-levels-monthly-means?tab=form

Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Oceanic Nino Index NOAA https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/climate-prediction-center-cpcoceanic-nino-index

Interpolated Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) NOAA https://downloads.psl.noaa.gov/Datasets/interp_OLR/

Short summary

El Niño has an important influence on climate systems. There are obviously negative water vapor anomalies from radiosonde observations in the tropical western Pacific during El Niño. The tropical Hadley, Walker, and monsoon circulation variations are revealed to play different roles in the observed water vapor anomaly in different types of El Niños. The Walker (monsoon) circulation anomaly made a major contribution in the 2015/16 (2009/10) strong eastern Pacific (central Pacific) El Niño event.