El Niño/La Niña and Sahel precipitation during the middle

• Main Author: Bette L. Otto-bliesner
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Pacific; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.492.210; http://ecosystems.wcp.muohio.edu/studentresearch/climatechange03/elnino/el nino and sahel precipitation during holocene.pdf

Abstract. Simulations with a synchronously coupled atmo-sphere-land-ocean-sea ice model indicate El Niño/La Niña-like events in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean during the middle Holocene (6 ka) with similar intensities and frequencies as at present (0 ka). July-August-September Sahel precipitation shifts northward as expected from proxy data. For present-day, interannual-decadal variability of western Sahel precipi-tation is correlated with both Pacific El Niño/La Niña sea sur-face temperature (SST) anomalies and the Atlantic dipole. Teleconnections at 6 ka between Sahel precipitation and El Niño/La Niña SST anomalies are absent with tropical Atlantic SSTs asserting a dominant influence. These results illustrate potential problems with using present-day teleconnection patterns in interpreting past climate variability from proxy data. 1.