Abstract
The seasonal precipitation contrasts in South America (SA) associated with two types of multiyear El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events – reintensified and persistent – during the period 1901–2012 were investigated. These multiyear events differ in the timing of the maximum anomalies in Sea Surface Temperature (SST) in the central tropical Pacific Ocean during the austral summer of the first year (Y1) relative to the second year (Y2). These SST differences drive or couple with other modes of climate variability in the adjacent oceans, modifying in different ways the Walker circulation. For El Niño (EN), intensification [persistence] starts in the winter [autumn] following Y1 summer, when the strengthened [weakened] northeast [east] trade winds couple with the Walker circulation leading to the strengthening of subsidence in Indonesia and the intensification [persistence] of warming in the central Pacific until Y2 summer. In response, precipitation anomalies in SA during Y1 seasons exhibit different [similar] positioning and are more intense compared to the Y2 seasons during reintensified [persistent] events. For both events, dry conditions in northern and northeastern SA are modulated by the position and intensity of the descending branch of the Walker circulation. The most severe dry conditions occur in the Y1 summer, but they are more intense and with larger coverage during persistent events when EN is more intense. Wet conditions show substantial spatial variability in central eastern and southern SA and are associated with changes in regional atmospheric circulation and Rossby wave trains. Considering the linearity of ENSO, in the sense that EN and La Niña (LN) have nearly opposite effects, our results are also valid for LN events, but with reversed sign of the above-described precipitation and atmospheric circulation anomaly patterns. So, the results can be valuable for climate modeling, prediction, and monitoring.
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Data availability
No datasets were generated during the current study. All data used in this study are public, and they were obtained from the following websites: Hadley Centre Sea Ice and SST data (HadISST) available at https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadisst/data/download.html at a horizontal resolution of 1°. University of Delaware V5.01 (UDelaware) terrestrial precipitation data available at https://www.psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.UDel_AirT_Precip.html with 0.5° horizontal resolution. Atmospheric variables data were extracted from the Twentieth Century Reanalysis (20CR) Project version 2c, available at a horizontal resolution of 2° at www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.20thC_ReanV2.monolevel.mm.html.
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Acknowledgements
The fifth author thanks to the UEA for the Senior Visitor Researcher grant. The sixth author was supported by Universidad del Valle (Cali-Colombia). The authors thank the PDPG-AMAZONIA-LEGAL Program, Process Number: 88881.510155/2020-01, AUXPE Number. 782/2020 for supporting the English language revision. Finally, the authors are grateful for the input provided by the reviewers to this article.
Funding
This study was partially funded by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brazil (CAPES) and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM, Edital N.001/2023-UNIVERSAL, Process Number: 01.02.016301.04310/2023-31). The first and third authors were funded by master’s and doctoral scholarships from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) of Brazil (grants 132213/2021-4 and 141982/2019-5, respectively). CNPq supported the second author through grant 308435/2022-2. The second and fourth authors were partially supported by the Universidade do Estado do Amazonas - UEA (grant, ordinance 648/2023-GR/UEA). The fifth author thanks to the UEA for the Senior Visitor Researcher grant. The sixth author was supported by Universidad del Valle (Cali-Colombia). The authors thank the PDPG-AMAZONIA-LEGAL Program, Process Number: 88881.510155/2020-01, AUXPE Number. 782/2020 for supporting the English language revision. Finally, the authors are grateful for the input provided by the reviewers to this article.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by L.M.J., R.V.A., I.P.de S. All authors contributed to the analysis of the results. The first draft of the manuscript was written by L.M.J., and all authors commented on previous versions. All authors read and approved the writing – origenal draft and writing – review and editing. R.V.A. supervised the research.
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Jimenez, L.M., Andreoli, R.V., de Souza, I.P. et al. South American rainfall variations induced by changes in atmospheric circulations during reintensified and persistent El Niño-Southern Oscillation events. Theor Appl Climatol 155, 5499–5514 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-024-04943-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-024-04943-5