A projected change in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is found to induce a change in high-latitude winds, thereby affecting future Southern Ocean warming. A greater projected increase in ENSO amplitude in response to transient greenhouse forcing weakens high-latitude westerly poleward intensification and slows future Southern Ocean warming.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Sallée, J.-B. Southern Ocean warming. Oceanography 31, 52–62 (2018). This review article presents observations and projections of Southern Ocean warming, and the mechanisms and the associated impacts.
Cai, W. et al. Changing El Niño–Southern Oscillation in a warming climate. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 2, 628–644 (2021). This review article synthesizes advances in understanding observed and projected changes in ENSO amplitude, frequency, nonlinearity, teleconnections and detectability.
Fyfe, J., Saenko, O., Zickfeld, K., Eby, M. & Weaver, A. The role of poleward intensifying winds on Southern Ocean warming. J. Clim. 20, 5391–5400 (2007). This paper reports that a poleward intensification of southern high-latitude zonal winds contributes to Southern Ocean warming and is key in determining the latitudinal structure.
Cai, W. et al. Increased ENSO sea surface temperature variability under four IPCC emission scenarios. Nat. Clim. Change 12, 228–231 (2022). This paper reports a strong inter-model consensus on the projected increase of ENSO variability from the twentieth century to the twenty-first century under all plausible emission scenarios.
England, M. R. et al. Tropical climate responses to projected Arctic and Antarctic sea ice loss. Nat. Geosci. 13, 275–281 (2020). The paper reports that Antarctic or Arctic sea ice loss could lead to an El Niño-like warming pattern.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This is a summary of: Wang, G. et al. Future Southern Ocean warming linked to projected ENSO variability. Nat. Clim. Change https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01398-2 (2022).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Enhanced ENSO variability moderates future Southern Ocean warming. Nat. Clim. Chang. 12, 622–623 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01406-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01406-5