Strengthening tropical Pacific zonal sea surface temperature gradient consistent with rising greenhouse gases

Nature Climate Change, Published online: 24 June 2019; doi:10.1038/s41558-019-0505-x

Observations of the tropical Pacific exhibit an increasing zonal sea surface temperature gradient, while climate models predict the opposite. This study shows that an increased gradient is consistent with greenhouse gas warming, and that climate model discrepancies arise from cold tongue biases.