Tropical eastern Pacific SST response to the future global warming

Using the observed and Climate Model Intercomparison Project III (CMIP3) data, we analyze future tropical eastern Pacific SST trends. For the last 100 years, the warming trend of the western Pacific SST is greater than the eastern Pacific, while future scenarios experiment with the high greenhouse gas concentrations produce larger SST warming trends in eastern Pacific than in western Pacific. Heat budget analyses verified that warmer tropical climates diminish the role of the ocean's dynamic thermostat, which currently regulates the eastern Pacific SST. As a result, the warming tendency of the eastern Pacific SST becomes dominant over that of the western Pacific SST.