Huang Huei-Ping author Columbia University. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Robertson Andrew W. author Columbia University. International Research Institute for Climate and Society Kushnir Yochanan author Columbia University. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University. International Research Institute for Climate and Society originator text Articles 2005 English The relationship between the boreal winter El Niño SST anomaly and boreal spring tropical Atlantic SST gradient (North Atlantic minus South Atlantic) is investigated using a long, detrended SST record. For both El Niño and La Niña, concordant cases (same sign for NINO3 index and Atlantic SST gradient) slightly dominate over discordant ones, reflecting the fact that the NINO3 index correlates more strongly with the North Atlantic than the South Atlantic SST anomaly. The ratio of the numbers of concordant and discordant cases is 4:3 overall, indicating strong non-ENSO influences on the Atlantic SST gradient. The composite of the concordant cases shows an SST anomaly in the North Atlantic with the same sign as NINO3 and an opposite-signed anomaly off the southwest coast of Africa resembling "Benguela Niño". That of the discordant cases is dominated by a pre-existing SST anomaly with the same sign as NINO3 in the south-central South Atlantic. Atmospheric sciences Climate change 34 L20706 1 4 2005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005GL023944 http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:14359 NNC NNC 2012-08-13 16:44:36 -0400 2012-08-13 16:55:05 -0400 8379 eng