Bimodality and regime behavior in atmosphere–ocean interactions during the recent climate change

•The atmosphere–ocean interactions are investigated for the period of 1979–2010.•Isomap approach provides better information about the atmosphere–ocean interactions.•Isomap indicates the existence of two distinct regimes in surface ocean temperature.

Maximum covariance analysis (MCA) and isometric feature mapping (Isomap) are applied to investigate the spatio-temporal atmosphere–ocean interactions otherwise hidden in observational data for the period of 1979–2010. Despite an established long-term surface warming trend for the whole northern hemisphere, sea surface temperatures (SST) in the East Pacific have remained relatively constant for the period of 2001–2010. Our analysis reveals that SST anomaly probability density function of the leading two Isomap components is bimodal. We conclude that Isomap shows the existence of two distinct regimes in surface ocean temperature, resembling the break and active phases of rainfall over equatorial land areas. These regimes occurred within two separated time windows during the past three decades. Strengthening of trade winds over Pacific was coincident with the cold phase of east equatorial Pacific. This pattern was reversed during the warm phase of east equatorial Pacific. The El Niño event of 1997/1998 happened within the transition mode between these two regimes and may be a trigger for the SST changes in the Pacific. Furthermore, we suggest that Isomap, compared with MCA, provides more information about the behavior and predictability of the inter-seasonal atmosphere–ocean interactions.