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El Niño and the Earth's Climate. Edition No. 1
VDM Publishing House, Aug 2008, Pages: 184
The dominant paradigm of paleoclimatology holds that
fluctuations in the oceans' meridional overturning
circulation can explain most past climate changes.
There is, however, acute recognition of the
importance of tropical Pacific sea-surface
temperatures in orchestrating modern climate
variability on timescales longer than a few years,
epitomized by the El Niño - Southern Oscillation
phenomenon (ENSO). This book investigates a subset of
mechanisms whereby low-frequency variability is
produced within the tropical Pacific and exported to
the rest of the globe. We first develop an analytical
theory of decadal changes in the tropical Pacific,
making the case that local air/sea interactions can
account for the observed variability. Next we use a
model of intermediate complexity to explore the
response of the ENSO system to changes volcanic and
solar forcing over the Holocene. In both cases we
confront our model predictions to the paleoclimate
record. We close by a study of ENSO teleconnections
during the last Ice Age. This work is aimed at
scholars and graduate students in climatology
interested in theories of tropically-driven climate
change, with equal emphasis on models and data.
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