Climate network suggests enhanced El Ni~no global impacts in localized areas 

Department of Physics Bar-Ilan University 

2016/07/20/ 15:00 

Conference Hall 6420, ITP new building/理论物理所新楼6420报告厅 

　　We construct directed and weighted climate networks based on near surface air temperature to investigate the global impacts of El Ni~no and La Ni~na. We nd that regions which are characterized by higher positive/negative network \in"-weighted links (i.e., exhibiting stronger correlations with El Ni~no basin) are warmer/cooler during El Ni~no/La Ni~na periods. These stronger in-weight activities are found to be concentrated in localized areas compared to non El Ni~no periods, whereas a large fraction of the globe is not influenced by the events. The regions of localized activity vary from one El Ni~no (La Ni~na) event to another, but still some El Ni~no (La Ni~na) events are more similar to each other. We quantify this similarity using network community structure. The results and methodology reported here may be used to improve the understanding and prediction of El Ni~no/La Ni~na events and also may be applied to investigate other climate variables. 

Xiao-Song Chen