Tropical western and central Pacific marine heatwave data calculated from gridded sea surface temperature observations and CMIP6.

Processed marine heatwave metrics are provided for the tropical western and central Pacific Ocean region (120°E-140°W, 40°S-15°N). The metrics are computed from daily sea surface temperature (SST) data, from both observations and models. The observed marine heatwave data are calculated from NOAA 0.25° daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) over the period 1982-2019. The modelled marine heatwave data are from analysis of 18 model simulations as part of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 6 (CMIP6) over the period 1982-2100, where two future scenarios have been analysed. The marine heatwave data are provided on a grid point basis across the domain. Marine heatwave timeseries metrics are also provided for three case study regions: Fiji, Samoa, and Palau.

Pantropical climate interactions.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which originates in the Pacific, is the strongest and most well-known mode of tropical climate variability. Its reach is global, and it can force climate variations of the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans by perturbing the global atmospheric circulation. Less appreciated is how the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans affect the Pacific. Especially noteworthy is the multidecadal Atlantic warming that began in the late 1990s, because recent research suggests that it has influenced Indo-Pacific climate, the character of the ENSO cycle, and the hiatus in global surface warming. Discovery of these pantropical interactions provides a pathway forward for improving predictions of climate variability in the current climate and for refining projections of future climate under different anthropogenic forcing scenarios.