Solar warming of the south-central Pacific

Abstract

Surface solar radiation is found to have contributed significantly and positively to the record warming event in the south-central Pacific (SCP) that peaked in December of 2009. The SCP region is within a positive teleconnection pattern between sea surface temperature anomalies in the equatorial Pacific and basin-wide surface solar radiation, as revealed by a 24-year time series; the pattern extends southeast from the western equatorial Pacific toward the SCP region. The results are consistent with the ‘atmospheric bridge postulation’ on El Niño teleconnection with extratropical sea surface temperature anomalies, but with the extension to cloud cover and surface solar radiation over the mid-latitude southern oceans.