Intermittent signature of ENSO in west-Antarctic precipitation

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Genthon, Christophe, Cosme, Emmanuel
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels Grenoble (LEGI), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2003
• Subjects: [PHYS.MECA.MEFL]Physics [physics]/Mechanics [physics]/Fluid mechanics [physics.class-ph]; [SPI.MECA.MEFL]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Mechanics [physics.med-ph]/Fluids mechanics [physics.class-ph]; Antarctic; Pacific; Weddell; West Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00203642; https://hal.science/hal-00203642/document; https://hal.science/hal-00203642/file/Genthon2003.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL018280

International audience Precipitation data from the new ERA40 reanalyses and from a 200‐year simulation confirm a robust main mode of precipitation variability in west Antarctica. An intermittently strong ENSO signature is found in this mode. However, high correlation with ENSO indices appears infrequent. Thus, the high correlation found in ERA40, and previously in other chronologically realistic data, in the late 1980s and the 1990s may not be expected to last. Unlike previously suggested by others, the sign of the correlation between ENSO indices and west Antarctic precipitation, when significant, does not appear to change in time: Precipitation variability at the ENSO pace in the Bellingshausen‐Weddell (Ross‐Amunsden) region is consistently in phase (phase opposition, respectively) with the Southern Oscillation Index. This is consistent with a tropospheric wave train connecting the tropical Pacific and west Antarctic regions, which modulates in phase opposition the advection of air and moisture in the 2 regions.