Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Shaoyu Zhang, Yimin Liu, Buwen Dong, Chen Sheng
Summary: This study identifies the relationship between tropical southern Atlantic sea surface temperature anomaly and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, and focuses on how the Pacific Decadal Oscillation modulates this relationship. The results show a significant but non-stationary interannual relationship, which undergoes a significant decadal shift. The study also proposes two processes to explain this decadal shift.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shuai-Lei Yao, Jing-Jia Luo, Pao-Shin Chu, Fei Zheng
Summary: Since 1979, during the era of satellite-monitoring, the Pacific Walker circulation (PWC) has shown a significant strengthening and westward shifting, contradicting model projections in response to anthropogenic warming. The exact cause for the observed PWC intensification remains uncertain. Our study reveals that the North Atlantic-only SST warming and the tropical eastern Pacific-only SST cooling partly contribute to the decadal adjustment of the PWC. Furthermore, we find that the tropical Atlantic-eastern Pacific trans-basin SST gradients have had a dominant role in the PWC variations over the past century.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Shaohua Chen, Haikun Zhao, Philp J. Klotzbach, Graciela B. Raga, Jian Cao, Chao Wang
Summary: This study reveals distinct decadal regimes in the impact of transbasin variability (TBV) on tropical cyclone frequency (TCF) over the Western North Pacific, Central-Eastern North Pacific, and North Atlantic basins. Changes in the interannual relationship between TBV and TCF are observed over different time periods, likely influenced by large-scale parameters. The interactions between ENSO and the Pacific decadal oscillation are believed to play a role in these observed decadal changes.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Zhen Lv, Jun-Chao Yang, Xiaopei Lin, Yu Zhang
Summary: This study suggests that the North Atlantic forcing plays a more significant role than the tropical Pacific forcing in the decadal prediction of sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the North Pacific. By removing the North Atlantic forcing, the prediction skill of NP SST decreases, indicating its strong contribution to the long-term prediction. The research emphasizes the need for improving the simulation of the Atlantic trans-basin effect for better predicting NP climate.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ruiqiang Ding, Hyacinth C. Nnamchi, Jin-Yi Yu, Tim Li, Cheng Sun, Jianping Li, Yu-Heng Tseng, Xichen Li, Fei Xie, Juan Feng, Kai Ji, Xumin Li
Summary: The connection between the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies and El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events varies considerably over multidecadal timescales and is mainly controlled by the multidecadal variability of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). During the positive phase of the NAO, the NTA impact on ENSO is amplified due to strengthening of precipitation over the equatorial Atlantic and enhancement of the persistence of NTA SST anomalies.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Jun-Chao Yang, Yu Zhang, Ingo Richter, Xiaopei Lin
Summary: The interannual variability of moisture transport from the Atlantic to Pacific is dominated by transbasin winds across Central America, peaking in late summer and late winter. This variability is influenced by the interaction between developing El Nino and mature Atlantic Nina in late summer, while in late winter, the Pacific-North American-like pattern intensifies the variability. Extreme El Nino events also play a role in these variations.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Teresa Losada, Belen Rodriguez-Fonseca, C. Roberto Mechoso, Elsa Mohino, Antonio Castano-Tierno
Summary: This paper investigates the dependence of interannual tropical Atlantic-Pacific basin interactions on convection-related features and their climatology. Through experimental simulations, the results show that changes in tropical convection patterns have significant impacts on the interactions between tropical basins.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2022)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Antonietta Capotondi, Shayne McGregor, Michael J. McPhaden, Sophie Cravatte, Neil J. Holbrook, Yukiko Imada, Sara C. Sanchez, Janet Sprintall, Malte F. Stuecker, Caroline C. Ummenhofer, Mathias Zeller, Riccardo Farneti, Giorgio Graffino, Shijian Hu, Kristopher B. Karnauskas, Yu Kosaka, Fred Kucharski, Michael Mayer, Bo Qiu, Agus Santoso, Andrea S. Taschetto, Fan Wang, Xuebin Zhang, Ryan M. Holmes, Jing-Jia Luo, Nicola Maher, Cristian Martinez-Villalobos, Gerald A. Meehl, Rajashree Naha, Niklas Schneider, Samantha Stevenson, Arnold Sullivan, Peter van Rensch, Tongtong Xu
Summary: In this Review, the mechanisms and characteristics of tropical Pacific decadal variability (TPDV) are synthesized, including oceanic processes and atmospheric processes. Oceanic processes involve Rossby waves, upper-ocean overturning circulation, and salinity-compensated temperature anomalies, while atmospheric processes involve internal variability and atmospheric teleconnections. The tropical adjustment mechanism is likely the dominant mechanism, but the origin and spectral characteristics of TPDV-related winds remain uncertain.
NATURE REVIEWS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Jun Lu, Liguang Wu, Shunwu Zhou, Haikun Zhao
Summary: Previous studies rarely examined the interannual variations of the beta drift of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the western North Pacific basin and its relationship with large-scale environmental flow. This study finds that the beta drift plays a more significant role than environmental steering in TC motion at the interannual time scale, and its variations are influenced by large-scale environmental flows.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shuai-Lei Yao, Pao-Shin Chu, Renguang Wu, Fei Zheng
Summary: Modeling evidence suggests that the Inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) can remotely affect the tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) variability. Using idealized pacemaker experiments, it is shown that a warm-phase IPO-SST anomaly drives a basin-wide SST warming over the tropical Atlantic. The connection between IPO and tropical Atlantic is established through the tropical tropospheric temperature mechanism and the atmospheric bridge teleconnections. The warming effects generated by the water vapor-longwave radiation-SST positive feedback contributes to the widespread warming in the tropical Atlantic.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Chiyu Zhao, Xin Geng, Wenjun Zhang, Li Qi
Summary: This study finds that the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) can affect the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It shows that during a negative AMO phase, the atmospheric anomaly amplitudes in the tropical Pacific for El Nino events are more pronounced and for La Nina events are weaker, compared to a positive AMO phase. This discrepancy may be largely attributed to the decadal modulation of AMO.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2022)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Yuhei Takaya, Naoaki Saito, Ichiro Ishikawa, Shuhei Maeda
Summary: This study investigates the influence of high sea surface temperatures in the northern tropical Atlantic on the summer climate of the Indo-western Pacific in 2010. The results suggest that these high temperatures had a considerable impact on weather patterns in the region via tropical routes and contributed to anomalous conditions.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2021)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Jie Jiang, Tianjun Zhou, Xiaolong Chen, Bo Wu
Summary: Central Asia is highly sensitive to changes in precipitation, with observed variations in precipitation over the past decades being related to tropical Pacific decadal variability and Atlantic multidecadal variability. These variations can affect precipitation over central Asia by influencing atmospheric circulation patterns in the region.
JOURNAL OF CLIMATE
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Yingying Zhao, Emanuele Di Lorenzo, Matthew Newman, Antonietta Capotondi, Samantha Stevenson
Summary: Understanding Tropical Pacific Decadal-scale Variability (TPDV) and making accurate forecasts heavily rely on climate model simulations. However, our study using a Linear Inverse Modeling (LIM) diagnostic approach reveals that current models struggle to reproduce the spatial structure and dominant mechanisms of TPDV. Although the ensemble mean pattern of TPDV in the models resembles observations, there is a wide range of variability among models, with significant differences from observations. Moreover, key characteristics of TPDV observed in nature are only confirmed in a subset of models, raising questions about our ability to accurately model the impacts of natural variability on long-term climate change.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Xi Cao, Renguang Wu, Jing Xu, Ying Sun, Mingyu Bi, Yifeng Dai, Xiaoqing Lan
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between tropical cyclone genesis in the western North Pacific, eastern North Pacific, and tropical North Atlantic Ocean during July-October from 1979 to 2019. The findings suggest a coherent interannual variation in TC genesis among the southeastern part of the western North Pacific, eastern North Pacific, and tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, a significant correlation is observed between the TC genesis in these regions and the tripole sea surface temperature anomaly distribution.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xander Huggins, Tom Gleeson, Matti Kummu, Samuel C. Zipper, Yoshihide Wada, Tara J. Troy, James S. Famiglietti
Summary: This research focuses on the impacts of freshwater stress and storage loss on social and ecological systems. It finds that basins with existing freshwater stress are experiencing increasing drought, posing challenges to water stressed basins globally. By mapping the global gradient of social-ecological vulnerability to freshwater stress and storage loss, 168 hotspot basins are identified as the most vulnerable, encompassing over 1.5 billion people, 17% of global food crop production, 13% of global gross domestic product, and hundreds of significant wetlands. Reducing vulnerability in these hotspot basins can bring significant social and ecological benefits.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ruiqiang Ding, Yu-Heng Tseng, Emanuele Di Lorenzo, Liang Shi, Jianping Li, Jin-Yi Yu, Chunzai Wang, Cheng Sun, Jing-Jia Luo, Kyung-Ja Ha, Zeng-Zhen Hu, Feifei Li
Summary: The authors find that persistent two-way teleconnections between the North Pacific Oscillation and the tropical Pacific are a key source of multi-year El Nino events. These teleconnections lead to the prolonged El Nino phenomena, resulting in severe floods and droughts worldwide with significant socioeconomic impacts. Model experiments and future projections suggest that with enhanced NPO variability under future anthropogenic forcing, more frequent multi-year El Nino events should be expected. Therefore, properly accounting for the effects of the NPO on the evolution of El Nino events may improve multi-year El Nino prediction and projection.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Takumi Bannai, Haoyang Xu, Nobuyuki Utsumi, Eunho Koo, Keming Lu, Hyungjun Kim
Summary: Satellite-based precipitation estimations using deep learning have shown significant potential for improving estimation accuracy, with a two-stage framework commonly employed. This study proposes a novel precipitation retrieval framework using multi-task learning approach, which simultaneously trains the rain/no-rain binary classification task and the rain rate regression task. The proposed two-task model outperformed the conventional single-task model, possibly due to efficient knowledge transfer between tasks. Furthermore, our product showed improved rain rate retrieval and rain/no-rain retrieval skills compared to existing products.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Xander Huggins, Tom Gleeson, Juan Castilla-Rho, Cameron Holley, Viviana Re, James S. Famiglietti
Summary: Groundwater resources are connected with various systems such as social, economic, ecological, and Earth systems. A new framing called groundwater-connected systems is introduced to better understand the complexity of these connections in terms of data collection, scientific investigations, governance, and education. This framing allows for a holistic approach to studying the interactions between groundwater and social-ecological systems, emphasizing the importance of integrating multiple perspectives and goals to achieve groundwater sustainability.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Chinchu Mohan, Tom Gleeson, Tara Forstner, James S. S. Famiglietti, Inge de Graaf
Summary: The importance of ecosystem services in water resources management has led to a focus on environmental-flows requirements for moving waters. However, current management practices often overlook the contribution of groundwater and fail to consider its importance in environmental flows. This study presents two methods for estimating groundwater environmental flow contributions, one based on groundwater and the other on surface water. The methods were tested in British Columbia, Canada and showed comparable results, suggesting their potential applicability in data-scarce, hydrologically complex landscapes globally.
WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ruiqiang Ding, Hyacinth C. Nnamchi, Jin-Yi Yu, Tim Li, Cheng Sun, Jianping Li, Yu-Heng Tseng, Xichen Li, Fei Xie, Juan Feng, Kai Ji, Xumin Li
Summary: The connection between the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies and El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events varies considerably over multidecadal timescales and is mainly controlled by the multidecadal variability of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). During the positive phase of the NAO, the NTA impact on ENSO is amplified due to strengthening of precipitation over the equatorial Atlantic and enhancement of the persistence of NTA SST anomalies.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Li Xu, James S. Famiglietti
Summary: Environmental change, especially water crises, is a crucial driver of human migration, particularly in vulnerable regions and low- and middle-income countries. However, the interconnected patterns between water-related events and migration are not yet fully understood. This study combines quantitative text-mining with qualitative thematic analysis to explore these patterns and identifies four major patterns of water-driven migration: water quantity variability, damaging water hazards, physical disturbances to water systems, and water pollution. Understanding the dynamics of water-migration requires considering the interconnections between water changes and migration patterns, investigating the interactions between different water variables and socioeconomic factors, developing an integrated water-migration database for early-warning signals, and implementing targeted water policies to enhance resilience in climate-vulnerable regions and populations.
WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS-WATER
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Grant Ferguson, Jennifer C. C. McIntosh, Scott Jasechko, Ji-Hyun Kim, James S. S. Famiglietti, Jeffrey J. J. McDonnell
Summary: Groundwater, although being one of the largest reservoirs of water on Earth, has small fluxes compared to its volume. Deep groundwater (>500 m) is only weakly and sporadically connected to the rest of the terrestrial water cycle, contributing <0.1% to global streamflow. However, it plays a significant role in the global chloride cycle, providing around 7% of the flux of chloride to the ocean.
COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Civil
Li Xu, David Ferris, Xander Huggins, Jefferson S. Wong, Chinchu Mohan, Sara Sadri, Hrishikesh A. Chandanpurkar, Palash Sanyal, James S. Famiglietti
Summary: Managing groundwater is difficult due to its underground existence. The GRACE tool provides an opportunity for monitoring groundwater storage, but linking scientific research to policymaking and groundwater practices is limited. This paper aims to improve the use of GRACE data for sustainable groundwater management through a Delphi survey collecting opinions from academic and non-academic communities. The survey reveals the potential and willingness of both communities to collaborate and suggests recommendations for better application of GRACE data.
JOURNAL OF HYDROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Ji-Won Kim, Jin-Yi Yu, Baijun Tian
Summary: Previous studies have overemphasized the role of a strong El Nino in the formation of multi-year La Nina events. However, observational analyses reveal that most of these events do not require a preceding strong El Nino, but are influenced by the negative phase of the North Pacific Meridional Mode.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Ji-Won Kim, Ting-Huai Chang, Ching-Teng Lee, Jin-Yi Yu
Summary: Using hindcasts produced by a coupled climate model, this study evaluates the model's ability to forecast the observed spatiotemporal complexity in ENSO. It is found that the model underestimates the amplitude of the eastern Pacific type of El Nino and fails to accurately hindcast the multi-year evolution of the 1986/87/88 El Nino. This is related to model biases in climatological SSTs in the tropical eastern and central Pacific.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Chau-Ron Wu, Yong-Fu Lin, I-I Lin, Jin-Yi Yu
Summary: The research reveals that the 11-year solar cycle can affect the incidence of off-season super typhoons in the western North Pacific by influencing sea surface temperature. This mechanism has become more effective since the shift of the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation to a warm phase in the 1990s. The findings can help improve long-term disaster preparation and planning.
NPJ CLIMATE AND ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE
(2023)
Review
Environmental Sciences
Bridget R. Scanlon, Sarah Fakhreddine, Ashraf Rateb, Inge de Graaf, Jay Famiglietti, Tom Gleeson, R. Quentin Grafton, Esteban Jobbagy, Seifu Kebede, Seshagiri Rao Kolusu, Leonard F. Konikow, Di Long, Mesfin Mekonnen, Hannes Mueller Schmied, Abhijit Mukherjee, Alan MacDonald, Robert C. Reedy, Mohammad Shamsudduha, Craig T. Simmons, Alex Sun, Richard G. Taylor, Karen G. Villholth, Charles J. Vorosmarty, Chunmiao Zheng
Summary: This review discusses the threats to water resources from human activities and climate variability, and explores ways to enhance resilience through green and grey solutions. The article evaluates the current and historical trends in water storage and availability, considering surface water and groundwater as interconnected resources. Diversifying management strategies, such as preserving forests and wetlands and increasing water supplies and storage, can help build a resilient water system.
NATURE REVIEWS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Chinchu Mohan, Tom Gleeson, James S. Famiglietti, Vili Virkki, Matti Kummu, Miina Porkka, Lan Wang-Erlandsson, Xander Huggins, Dieter Gerten, Sonja C. Jaehnig
Summary: The degradation of freshwater ecosystems worldwide has resulted in a need to maintain environmental flow in river networks. While the relationship between streamflow alterations and freshwater biodiversity response is well established at small scales, it remains unclear at larger scales. This study explores the relationship between environmental flow violation and freshwater biodiversity at global and regional scales, finding no statistically significant negative correlation. These findings highlight the need for a comprehensive approach in determining environmental flows.
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Sara Sadri, James S. Famiglietti, Ming Pan, Hylke E. Beck, Aaron Berg, Eric F. Wood
Summary: This study developed FarmCan, a remote sensing and machine learning framework that accurately predicts daily crop water quantity or irrigation demand. The case study on four farms in Canada showed that precipitation had the highest correlation with changes in soil moisture. The algorithm successfully predicted daily irrigation demand up to 14 days in advance, with high accuracy during the experimental period from 2015 to 2020.
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2022)
