On the Energy Exchange between Tropical Ocean Basins Related to ENSO*

Abstract Vast amounts of energy are exchanged between the ocean, atmosphere, and space in association with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). This study examines energy budgets of all tropical (30°S–30°N) ocean basins and the atmosphere separately using different, largely independent oceanic and atmospheric reanalyses to depict anomalous energy flows associated with ENSO in a consistent framework. It is found that variability of area-averaged ocean heat content (OHC) in the tropical Pacific to a large extent is modulated by energy flow through the ocean surface. While redistribution of OHC within the tropical Pacific is an integral part of ENSO dynamics, variability of ocean heat transport out of the tropical Pacific region is found to be mostly small. Noteworthy contributions arise from the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), which is anticorrelated with ENSO at a few months lag, and from anomalous oceanic poleward heat export during the La Niña events in 1999 and 2008. Regression analysis reveals that atmospheric energy transport and radiation at the top of the atmosphere (RadTOA) almost perfectly balance the OHC changes and ITF variability associated with ENSO. Only a small fraction of El Niño–related heat lost by the Pacific Ocean through anomalous air–sea fluxes is radiated to space immediately, whereas the major part of the energy is transported away by the atmosphere. Ample changes in tropical atmospheric circulation lead to enhanced surface fluxes and, consequently, to an increase of OHC in the tropical Atlantic and Indian Ocean that almost fully compensates for tropical Pacific OHC loss. This signature of energy redistribution is robust across the employed datasets for all three tropical ocean basins and explains the small ENSO signal in global mean RadTOA.