Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Abrupt termination of the 1997–98 El Niño in response to a Madden–Julian oscillation

Nature volume 402, pages 279–282 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

The role of the Madden–Julian oscillation—a global atmospheric wave in the tropics that is associated with convective activity and propagates eastwards with a period of about 30–60 days (refs 1, 2)—in triggering El Niño events has been discussed before3,4,5,6,7,8. But its possible connection with a termination of El Niño has yet to be investigated, despite the difficulty in explaining the timing of El Niño terminations by the basic wind-induced oceanic-wave processes9,10. For the extreme 1997–98 event, the mechanism of both onset and termination have been investigated3, but the reason for the abruptness of the termination has yet to be resolved. Here we present global data of precipitation, sea surface temperatures and wind speeds that show a precipitation system associated with an exceptionally strong Madden–Julian oscillation travelling around the Equator in May 1998. The propagation of this atmospheric system was associated with an abrupt intensification of the easterly trade winds over the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Combined with the already shallow equatorial thermocline in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean at that time3, these strong winds provided the triggering mechanism for the observed accelerated ending of the 1997–98 El Niño event.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Time averaged sea surface temperature (SST) for 1–10, 11–20 and 21–31 May 1998.
Figure 2: Time–longitude sections of SST and the surface winds.
Figure 3: Time–longitude sections of the rain rate and the surface winds.
Figure 4: Composite SSM/I precipitation and ECMWF horizontal winds.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Madden,R. A. & Julian,P. R. Detection of a 40–50 day oscillation in the zonal wind in the tropical Pacific. J. Atmos. Sci. 28, 702–708 (1971).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Madden,R. A. & Julian,P. R. Description of global scale circulation cells in the tropics with a 40–50 day period. J. Atmos. Sci. 29, 1109–1120 (1972).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. McPhaden,M. J. Genesis and evolution of the 1997–98 El Nino. Science 283, 950–954 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Nitta,Ts. & Motoki,T. Abrupt enhancement of convective activity and low level westerly wind burst during the onset phase of 1986–87 El Nino. J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn 65, 497–506 (1987).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Nitta,Ts. Development of a twin cyclone and westerly wind bursts during the initial phase of 1986–87 El Nino. J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn 67, 677–681 (1989).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Nitta,Ts., Mizuno,T. & Takahashi,K. Multi-scale convective systems during the initial phase of 1986/87 El Nino. J. Meterol. Soc. Jpn 70, 317–335 (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Kindle,J. C. & Phoebus,P. A. The ocean response to operational westerly wind bursts. J. Geophys. Res. 100, 4893–4920 (1995).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lau,K. M. & Chan,P. H. The 40–50 day oscillation and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation: A new perspective. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 67, 533–534 (1986).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Suarez,M. J. & Schopf,P. S. A delayed action oscillator for ENSO. J. Atmos. Sci. 45, 3283–3287 (1988).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Battisti,D. S. Dynamics and thermodynamics of a warming event in a coupled tropical atmosphere-ocean model. J. Atmos. Sci. 45, 2889–2919 (1988).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Wentz,F. J. & Spencer,R. W. SSM/I rain retrievals within a unified all-weather ocean algorithm. J. Atmos. Sci. 55, 1613–1627 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Shibata,A., Imaoka,K., Kachi,M. & Murakami,H. SST observation by TRMM Microwave Imager aboard Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission. Umi no Kenkyu 8, 135–139 (1999). (In Japanese.)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Harrison,D. E. & Vecchi,G. A. On the termination of El Niño. Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 1593–1596 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  14. Matsuno,T. Quasi-geostrophic motions in the equatorial area. J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn 44, 25–43 (1966).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Gill,A. E. Some simple solutions for heat-induced tropical circulation. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc. 106, 447–462 (1980).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Wang,B. & Rui,H. Synoptic climatology of transient tropical intraseasonal convection anomalies: 1975–1985 Meteorol. Atmos. Phys. 44, 43–61 (1990).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Wang,B. & Xie,X. Low-frequency equatorial waves in vertically sheared zonal flow. Part I: Stable waves. J. Atmos. Sci. 53, 449–467 (1996).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  18. Slingo,J. M. et al. Intraseasonal oscillations in 15 atmospheric general circulation models: results from an AMIP diagnostic subproject. Clim. Dyn. 12, 325–357 (1996).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank T. Nakazawa, Y. Suzuki, H. Fujinami, K. Imaoka and H. Murakami for help with processing the SSM/I and TRMM data.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, 305-0053, Ibaraki, Japan

    Yukari N. Takayabu & Hiroshi Kanzawa

  2. Communications Research Laboratory, Tokyo, 184-8795, Japan

    Toshio Iguchi

  3. Earth Observation Research Center/NASDA, Tokyo, 106-0032, Japan

    Misako Kachi & Akira Shibata

Authors
  1. Yukari N. Takayabu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Toshio Iguchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Misako Kachi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Akira Shibata
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Hiroshi Kanzawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Takayabu, Y., Iguchi, T., Kachi, M. et al. Abrupt termination of the 1997–98 El Niño in response to a Madden–Julian oscillation. Nature 402, 279–282 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/46254

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/46254

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing