Sensitivity of January climate response to the magnitude and position of equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies.

Abstract

We present here the results of two categories of equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly experiments using the NCAR Community Climate Model in the perpetual-January mode. Each experiment consists of an ensemble of eight independent realizations of 90 days duration. The insensitivity of the location of the model PNA pattern to the longitude of anomalous tropical heating supports the conclusion of Simmons and collaborators that the PNA pattern is related to an unstable mode of the atmosphere deriving energy from the zonally asymmetric climatological mean flow. -from Authors