Seasonal linkage of the Southern Hemisphere extratropical climate variability to two types of ENSO

This study uses the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) to investigate the responses of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) extratropical climate to two types of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-the eastern Pacific (EP) type and the central Pacific (CP) type in different seasons. The responses are denoted by the anomalies of climate variables associated with one-standard-deviation increase in the Nino3 or Nino4 index. The results show that in austral spring the differences in the ENSO-related anomaly (ERA) patterns of atmospheric circulation between the EP ENSO period (1979-1998) and CP ENSO period (1999-2010) are mainly associated with the change in the ENSO-PSA2 relationship. Such differences affect the ERA fields of surface air temperature and mixed layer temperature, and finally result in significant differences in sea-ice concentration anomalies in the Atlantic sector. In austral summer, significant correlation exists between the variations of SAM and both of the variations of Nino3 and Nino4 in 1979-1998, while the correlation between SAM and Nino4 disappears in 1999-2010. For all seasons, the strength of the climate ERAs depend on if there are close relationship between ENSO and the major climate variation modes of the SH extratropics. For the climate variables, the ERA patterns of surface air temperature are generally controlled by surface wind anomalies and mirrored by the mixed layer temperature anomalies. The mixed layer depth anomalies are primarily modulated by surface heat flux anomalies and occasionally by anomalous wind. There are strikingly strong anomalies of surface heat flux in the autumn of 1979-1998 related to the Nino3 variation, the period when there is only significant correlation between ENSO and PSA2. There are no evidence that the SH extratropical climate variability induced by Nino3 variations are stronger in the EP-ENSO period, and that variability induced by Nino4 variations are stronger in the CP-ENSO period.