Lin et al. (2025) Tropical-extratropical interactions and teleconnections

Identification

• Journal: Elsevier eBooks
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-14
• Authors: Hai Lin, Jorgen Frederiksen, David Straus, Cristiana Stan
• DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-443-31538-1.00004-x

Research Groups

• Recherche en prévision numérique atmosphérique, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dorval, QC, Canada
• CSIRO Environment, Aspendal, VIC, Australia
• Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, United States

Short Summary

This chapter introduces tropical-extratropical interactions and atmospheric teleconnection patterns, emphasizing their crucial role in subseasonal-to-seasonal predictability and the significant tropical origins of extratropical atmospheric variability.

Objective

• To provide an overview of tropical-extratropical interactions, with a particular focus on atmospheric teleconnection patterns and their influence on extratropical weather and subseasonal-to-seasonal predictability.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Hemispheric to global scales, including specific regions like the North Pacific, North America, and middle latitudes.
• Temporal Scale: Decadal, seasonal, interannual, subseasonal-to-seasonal (weeks to months).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not applicable; this chapter provides a conceptual introduction and synthesis of existing knowledge.
• Data sources: Not applicable; this chapter synthesizes findings from existing literature, referencing phenomena like sea surface temperature (SST) variability and tropical convection anomalies.

Main Results

• Tropical-extratropical interactions manifest across various timescales and forms, including oceanic teleconnections (thermohaline circulation), atmospheric Hadley circulation, oceanic subtropical cells, and tropical-extratropical cyclone transitions.
• Atmospheric teleconnection patterns are recurring, persistent large-scale circulation patterns that connect widely separated locations on hemispheric or global scales.
• These teleconnection patterns significantly contribute to atmospheric predictability on subseasonal-to-seasonal timescales.
• A substantial portion of extratropical atmospheric variability originates in the tropics, exemplified by the influence of El Niño—Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-related sea surface temperature variability on teleconnection patterns across the North Pacific and North America.
• Tropical convection anomalies are known to induce Rossby wave trains that propagate eastward and poleward into the middle latitudes.

Contributions

• This chapter provides a foundational synthesis and conceptual framework for understanding tropical-extratropical interactions and teleconnections, highlighting their importance for subseasonal-to-seasonal prediction. It consolidates existing knowledge to set the context for further exploration of these phenomena.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Lin2025Tropicalextratropical,
  author = {Lin, Hai and Frederiksen, Jorgen and Straus, David and Stan, Cristiana},
  title = {Tropical-extratropical interactions and teleconnections},
  journal = {Elsevier eBooks},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/b978-0-443-31538-1.00004-x},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-443-31538-1.00004-x}
}