Mid-latitude leading double-dip La Niña

Understanding the evolution asymmetry between El Niño and La Niña events is challenging. Unlike El Niño, most La Niña events are characterised by a double-dip cooling (a.k.a. multi-year La Niña). Herein, we examined how single- and multi-year La Niña events differ by analysing observational and climate-model data sets. Single-year La Niña events tend to develop narrowly within the tropics from a central Pacific-type El Niño (Niño-4 > Niño-3), whereas multi-year La Niña events tend to originate from an eastern Pacific-type El Niño (Niño-3 > Niño-4) and are well-connected to mid-latitudes through the Pacific meridional mode, which leads to a meridionally wider response of the off-equatorial low-level atmospheric anti-cyclonic circulation. As the anti-cyclonic circulation controls the amount of equatorial upper-ocean heat recharge through Sverdrup transport, for single-year La Niña, efficient ocean recharging due to a narrower anti-cyclonic circulation causes a fast transition to an El Niño or a fast termination of a La Niña. In contrast, for multi-year La Niña, a weaker recharging causes surface cooling to persist, leading to another La Niña in the following year.