Liu et al. (2025) Unravelling the Dominant Influence of ENSO Over IOD on Australian Springtime Climate Variability Using a Pacemaker Modelling Approach

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Climate
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-04
• Authors: Ying Lung Liu, Lisa V. Alexander, Jason P. Evans
• DOI: 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0142.1

Research Groups

Not explicitly stated in the abstract.

Short Summary

This study utilizes the Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM) to isolate the independent impacts of ENSO and IOD on Australian springtime rainfall and temperature, concluding that ENSO is the dominant driver of variability.

Objective

• Investigate the independent influences of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) on Australian springtime rainfall and temperature variability.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Variable-resolution configuration with approximately 20 km resolution over Australia.
• Temporal Scale: Springtime (seasonal focus) for assessing interannual variability, using 10-member ensemble simulations.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM).
• Data sources: Sea Surface Temperature (SST) variability (ENSO and IOD components filtered via Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF)) used as boundary conditions for pacemaker-style ensemble simulations.

Main Results

• ENSO is the primary driver of Australian rainfall and temperature variability, dominating patterns traditionally linked to both ENSO and IOD.
• Removing ENSO-driven SST variability significantly reduces correlations between climate variables and ENSO/IOD indices.
• Removing IOD-related SST variability only slightly weakens these correlations, indicating a limited independent role for IOD in interannual variability.
• ENSO primarily affects Australian climate variability via teleconnections, as removing tropical Pacific ENSO-associated SST variability eliminates circulation responses beyond the tropical Pacific.
• The sensitivity of rainfall correlations to internal variability underscores the importance of ensemble experiments for robust impact assessment.

Contributions

• Quantifies the dominant role of ENSO over IOD in driving Australian springtime rainfall and temperature variability.
• Provides evidence for ENSO's teleconnection mechanism as the primary pathway for its influence on Australian climate.
• Emphasizes the necessity of ensemble simulations to account for internal variability when assessing ENSO/IOD impacts.

Funding

Not explicitly stated in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Liu2025Unravelling,
  author = {Liu, Ying Lung and Alexander, Lisa V. and Evans, Jason P.},
  title = {Unravelling the Dominant Influence of ENSO Over IOD on Australian Springtime Climate Variability Using a Pacemaker Modelling Approach},
  journal = {Journal of Climate},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1175/jcli-d-25-0142.1},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-25-0142.1}
}