California Niño/Niña

Area of Science:

• Oceanography
• Atmospheric Science
• Climate Dynamics

Background:

• Coastal regions exhibit complex air-sea interactions.
• Understanding these interactions is crucial for predicting regional climate variability.
• Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies significantly impact coastal ecosystems and weather patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and describe an intrinsic coastal air-sea coupled phenomenon.
• To investigate its contribution to interannual SST anomalies.
• To characterize the feedback mechanisms involved in this phenomenon.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of observational data for coastal ocean and atmosphere.
• Investigating the relationship between alongshore winds, coastal upwelling, and SST.
• Examining atmospheric pressure gradients and their influence on wind patterns.

Main Results:

• The study confirms an intrinsic coastal air-sea coupled phenomenon off Baja California and California.
• This phenomenon significantly contributes to interannual SST anomalies.
• A feedback loop involving alongshore winds, upwelling, SST, and atmospheric pressure was identified.

Conclusions:

• The identified phenomenon is analogous to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) but operates on smaller spatial and temporal scales.
• This intrinsic air-sea coupling plays a key role in regulating coastal climate variability.
• The phenomenon may be termed "California Niño/Niña".