Unraveling the Complexity of Global Climate Dynamics: Interactions among El Niño–Southern Oscillation, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and Tropical Basins Across Different Timescales

Tropical basin interactions and the climatic linkages between mid-to-high latitudes and the tropics are active research areas. These interactions include the influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the tropical Indian and Atlantic oceans, the feedback from these basins on ENSO, the influence of the tropics on mid-to-high-latitude climates, and the feedback from higher latitudes on tropical climate variability. This review summarizes the current understanding of these relationships and key underlying physical processes. In particular, we assessed the current knowledge of tropical variability and the interactions between the tropics and extratropics, including ENSO variability and diversity, the influence of ENSO on the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans, interactions among tropical basins on different timescales, variability in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), the effect of tropical basins on the AMOC, the relationship between the AMOC and Atlantic multidecadal variability, the influence of the AMOC on ENSO and tropical variability, and the impact of other mid-to-high-latitude processes on tropical variability. Although ENSO is the dominant mode of variability on interannual timescales, its characteristics are not stationary and can be influenced by processes from other tropical basins and mid-to-high latitudes. The strength and variations of these interactions among different tropical basins and latitudes can be modulated by changes in external forcing, whether of natural or anthropogenic origin, and may also be shaped by nonlinear interactions between different modes of internal variability.

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Publication Details

Journal
Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.34133/olar.0096
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.59
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article

Unraveling the Complexity of Global Climate Dynamics: Interactions among El Niño–Southern Oscillation, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and Tropical Basins Across Different Timescales

Riccardo Farneti, Natalie Burls, Aixue Hu, Rhys Parfitt et al.
2 citations
Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research
Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
3.59
article

Unraveling the Complexity of Global Climate Dynamics: Interactions among El Niño–Southern Oscillation, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, and Tropical Basins Across Different Timescales

Riccardo Farneti, Natalie Burls, Aixue Hu, Rhys Parfitt, Katinka Bellomo, Ingo Richter, Chengfei He, Alessio Bellucci, Daniela Matei, Yuko Okumura, Noel Keenlyside, Brady Ferster, Qian Li, Alexey V. Fedorov
article en
2 citations

Abstract

Tropical basin interactions and the climatic linkages between mid-to-high latitudes and the tropics are active research areas. These interactions include the influence of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the tropical Indian and Atlantic oceans, the feedback from these basins on ENSO, the influence of the tropics on mid-to-high-latitude climates, and the feedback from higher latitudes on tropical climate variability. This review summarizes the current understanding of these relationships and key underlying physical processes. In particular, we assessed the current knowledge of tropical variability and the interactions between the tropics and extratropics, including ENSO variability and diversity, the influence of ENSO on the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans, interactions among tropical basins on different timescales, variability in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), the effect of tropical basins on the AMOC, the relationship between the AMOC and Atlantic multidecadal variability, the influence of the AMOC on ENSO and tropical variability, and the impact of other mid-to-high-latitude processes on tropical variability. Although ENSO is the dominant mode of variability on interannual timescales, its characteristics are not stationary and can be influenced by processes from other tropical basins and mid-to-high latitudes. The strength and variations of these interactions among different tropical basins and latitudes can be modulated by changes in external forcing, whether of natural or anthropogenic origin, and may also be shaped by nonlinear interactions between different modes of internal variability.

Ocean-Land-Atmosphere ResearchVol. 4
Florida State University (US), The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) (IT), Northeastern University (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JP), George Mason University (US), Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR), Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (FR), Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (NO), Yale University (US), Sorbonne Université (FR), Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (IT), Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientifique (FR), IIT@MIT (US), NSF NCAR Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory (US), Environment Park (IT), Turin Polytechnic University (UZ), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (FR), Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (DE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR), Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NO), University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, University of Bergen (NO), The University of Texas at Austin (US)
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
3.59
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