Robust impact of tropical Pacific SST trends on global and regional circulation in boreal winter

Journal article

Evidence has emerged of a discrepancy in tropical Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) trends over the satellite era, where most coupled climate models struggle to simulate the observed La Niña-like SST trends. Here we highlight wider implications of the tropical Pacific SST trend discrepancy for global circulation trends during boreal winter, using two complementary methods to constrain coupled model SST trends: conditioning near-term climate prediction (hindcast) simulations, and pacemaking coupled climate simulations. The robust circulation trend response to constraining the tropical Pacific SST trend resembles the interannual La Niña response. Constraining tropical Pacific SST robustly reduces tropical tropospheric warming, improving agreement with reanalyses, and moderately shifts the zonal-mean jets poleward. It also improves surface air temperature and precipitation trends in ENSO-sensitive regions, such as the Americas, South Asia, and southern Africa. Our results underline the importance of tropical Pacific SST for achieving confidence in multidecadal model projections.

Authors: Kang, JM; Thomas, R; Dunstone, N; Shaw, TA; Woollings, T

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 1
• Article number: 315
• Publication date: 2025-08-27
• Acceptance date: 2025-08-04
• DOI: 10.1038/s41612-025-01192-9
• EISSN: 2397-3722
• Language: English