Global teleconnectivity structures of the El Ni\~no-Southern Oscillation and large volcanic eruptions -- An evolving network perspective

TL;DR

This study uses a network analysis approach to examine how El Niño and volcanic eruptions disrupt global temperature teleconnectivity, revealing episodic breakdowns and regional effects linked to atmospheric circulation.

Contribution

It introduces a functional climate network framework to quantify and analyze the impact of ENSO phases and volcanic eruptions on global temperature connectivity patterns.

Findings

ENSO causes episodic breakdowns in global temperature hierarchy.

Major volcanic eruptions induce regional teleconnectivity effects.

Time-dependent network patterns trace the spatial extent of climate disruptions.

Abstract

Recent work has provided ample evidence that global climate dynamics at time-scales between multiple weeks and several years can be severely affected by the episodic occurrence of both, internal (climatic) and external (non-climatic) perturbations. Here, we aim to improve our understanding on how regional to local disruptions of the "normal" state of the global surface air temperature field affect the corresponding global teleconnectivity structure. Specifically, we present an approach to quantify teleconnectivity based on different characteristics of functional climate network analysis. Subsequently, we apply this framework to study the impacts of different phases of the El Ni\~no-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) as well as the three largest volcanic eruptions since the mid 20th century on the dominating spatiotemporal co-variability patterns of daily surface air temperatures. Our results confirm the existence of global effects of ENSO which result in episodic breakdowns of the hierarchical organization of the global temperature field. This is associated with the emergence of strong teleconnections. At more regional scales, similar effects are found after major volcanic eruptions. Taken together, the resulting time-dependent patterns of network connectivity allow a tracing of the spatial extents of the dominating effects of both types of climate disruptions. We discuss possible links between these observations and general aspects of atmospheric circulation.