A recent study in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science advances understanding of the complex interactions between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, which significantly impact global climate patterns. Antonietta Capotondi of NOAA’s Physical Sciences Laboratory worked on this study with the support of the Climate Program Office’s Climate Variability & Predictability (CVP) program, which provided a grant aimed at improving climate predictability on the interannual to decadal timescale.
Capotondi and co-author Yingying Zhao applied a Linear Inverse Model, which uses real-world observations to find patterns and predict future behavior, to better understand how the Atlantic affects Pacific variability, and vice versa. They found that changes in the Atlantic Ocean can increase unusual temperature patterns in the Pacific, particularly during key climate events like El Niño. The new method allowed them to distinguish between influences originating in the Atlantic and those from the Pacific, providing a more detailed picture than previous climate models. Their findings are crucial for improving climate predictions and enhancing our understanding of global climate dynamics, which could have implications for climate mitigation strategies and our ability to forecast extreme weather events.
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