Moist Teleconnection Mechanisms for the Tropical South American and Atlantic Sector*
Authors: Neelin J. David , Su Hui 
Published: October 2005

Teleconnections have traditionally been studied for the case of dry dynamical response to a given diabatic heat source. Important anomalies often occur within convective zones, for instance, in the observed remote response to El Niño. The reduction of rainfall and teleconnection propagation in deep convective regions poses theoretical challenges because feedbacks involving convective heating and cloud radiative effects come into play. Land surface feedbacks, including variations of land surface temperature, and ocean surface layer temperature response must be taken into account. During El Niño, descent and negative precipitation anomalies often extend across equatorial South America and the Atlantic intertropical convergence zone. Analysis of simulated mechanisms in a case study of the 1997/98 El Niño is used to illustrate the general principals of teleconnections occurring in deep convective zones, contrasting land and ocean regions. Comparison to other simulated events shows similar behavior. Tropospheric temperature and wind anomalies are spread eastward by wave dynamics modified by interaction with the moist convection zones. The traditional picture would have gradual descent balanced by radiative damping, but this scenario misses the most important balances in the moist static energy (MSE) budget. A small “zoo” of mechanisms is active in producing strong regional descent anomalies and associated drought. Factors common to several mechanisms include the role of convective quasi equilibrium (QE) in linking low-level moisture anomalies to free tropospheric temperature anomalies in a two-way interaction referred to as QE mediation. Convective heating feedbacks change the net static stability to a gross moist stability (GMS) M. The large cloud radiative feedback terms may be manipulated to appear as a modified static stability Meff, under approximations that are quantified for the quasi-equilibrium tropical circulation model used here. The relevant measure of Meff differs between land, where surface energy flux balance applies, and short time scales over ocean. For the time scale of an onsetting El Niño, a mixed layer ocean response is similar to a fixed sea surface temperature (SST) case, with surface fluxes lost into the ocean and Meff substantially reduced over ocean-enhancing descent anomalies. Use of Meff aids analysis of terms that act as the initiators of descent anomalies. Apparently modest terms in the MSE budget can be acted on by the GMS multiplier effect, which yields substantial precipitation anomalies due to the large ratio of the moisture convergence to the MSE divergence. Advection terms enter in several mechanisms, with the leading effects here due to advection by mean winds in both MSE and momentum balances. A Kelvinoid solution is presented as a prototype for how easterly flow enhances moist wave decay mechanisms, permitting relatively small damping terms by surface drag and radiative damping to produce the substantial eastward temperature gradients seen in observations and simulations and contributing to precipitation anomalies. The leading mechanism for drought in eastern equatorial South America is the upped-ante mechanism in which QE mediation of teleconnected tropospheric temperature anomalies tends to produce moisture gradients between the convection zone, where low-level moisture increases toward QE, and the neighboring nonconvective region. Over the Atlantic ITCZ, the upped-ante mechanism is a substantial contributor, but on short time scales several mechanisms referred to jointly as troposphere/SST disequilibrium mechanisms are important. While SST is adjusting during passive SST (coupled ocean mixed layer) experiments, or for fixed SST, heat flux to the ocean is lost to the atmosphere, and these mechanisms can induce descent and precipitation anomalies, although they disappear when SST equilibrates. In simulations here, cloud radiative feedbacks, surface heat fluxes induced by teleconnected wind anomalies, and surface fluxes induced by QE-mediated temperature anomalies are significant disequilibrium contributors. At time scales of several months or longer, remaining Atlantic ITCZ rainfall reductions are maintained by the upped-ante mechanism.