Westerly wind events, diurnal cycle and central Pacific El Niño warming

•Strong central Pacific El Niño and large diurnal variations were observed in 2009-2010.•Weakening of trade winds by westerly wind events lead to large diurnal variations.•Accumulated effect of diurnal cycle of SST may contribute to central Pacific El Niño warming.

In the past three decades, the strongest central Pacific (CP) El Niño event was observed in 2009-2010 by satellites. When intensity of this CP El Niño reached its maximum, large diurnal variations of sea surface temperature (SST) were also observed from tropical atmosphere ocean moorings in the central equatorial Pacific. Solar radiation in the equatorial central Pacific is larger than 140 W/m2, which leads to the amplitude of diurnal cycle of SST primarily determined by large-scale wind patterns. Intraseasonal westerly wind events (WWEs) can lead to an eastward displacement of the warm pool and also can weaken the trade winds in central Pacific. When the occurrence of equatorial WWEs is more than 20 days in a month, monthly mean wind speed in central equatorial Pacific has high possibility of wind speed less than 3 m/s, thus has pronounced diurnal cycle of SST. The diurnal cycle of SST will rectify daily mean SST. Reduced mixing at the base of the mixed layer and suppression of entrainment due to the accumulated effect of diurnal cycle may lead to warmer SST in the following month. This study suggests the occurrence of more diurnal SST events may contribute to the increasing intensity of the CP El Niño events.