Controversy has surrounded the potential impacts of phytoplankton on the tropical climate, since climate models produce diverse behaviors in terms of the equatorial mean state and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplitude. We explored biophysical impacts on the tropical ocean temperature using an ocean general circulation model coupled to a biogeochemistry model in which chlorophyll can modify solar attenuation and in turn feed back to ocean physics. Compared with a control model run excluding biophysical processes, our model with biogeochemistry showed that subsurface chlorophyll concentrations led to an increase in sea surface temperature (particularly in the western Pacific) via horizontal accumulation of heat contents. In the central Pacific, however, a mild cold anomaly appeared, accompanying the strengthened westward currents. The magnitude and skewness of ENSO were also modulated by biophysical feedbacks resulting from the chlorophyll affecting El Niño and La Niña in an asymmetric way. That is, El Niño conditions were intensified by the higher contribution of the second baroclinic mode to sea surface temperature anomalies, whereas La Niña conditions were slightly weakened by the absorption of shortwave radiation by phytoplankton. In our model experiments, the intensification of El Niño was more dominant than the dampening of La Niña, resulting in the amplification of ENSO and higher skewness.

본 연구에서는 엘니뇨현상과 인도양 쌍극자 모드(Indian Ocean Dipole, IOD) 현상의 상호 관련성과, 우리나라 기온, 강수량에 대한 두 현상의 영향을 분석하였다. 1954년부터 2004년까지 51년간 NINO 3 지수, IOD지수, 그리고 전국 11개 지점 지역평균한 월별 평균기온과 강수량 자료를 사용하였다. 엘니뇨현상과 IOD현상은 봄과 가을에는 동시 상관관계가 존재한다. 인도양에서 해수면온도 분포는 엘니뇨 해에는 남북진동이, IOD 해에는 동서진동 형태가 뚜렷하였다. 엘니뇨 해 우리나라에서는, 여름철에 냉하다우, 겨울철에 온난다우 경향이 뚜렷한 반면에, IOD 해에는 유의한 상관성을 찾을 수 없었다. 대기대순환에서도 엘니뇨 해에는 우리나라를 포함한 중위도에 통계적으로 신뢰할 만한 편차패턴이 나타나지만, IOD 해에는 그렇지 않았다.