World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
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Environmental Sciences
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Environmental Sciences

D-Index
116
Citations
53360
World Ranking
147
National Ranking
68

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in United States Leader Award
  • 2014 - Fellow of American Geophysical Union (AGU)

Overview

Michael J. McPhaden is affiliated with the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in the United States. Their research spans several interconnected fields within Earth and Environmental Sciences with a focus on Oceanography, Global and Planetary Change, and Atmospheric Science. Their work encompasses a wide range of topics primarily related to climate variability, oceanographic and atmospheric processes, and meteorological phenomena.

The main fields of study Michael J. McPhaden contributes to include:

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences
  • Environmental Science

More specifically, their subfields of expertise cover:

  • Oceanography
  • Global and Planetary Change
  • Atmospheric Science
  • Geology
  • Ocean Engineering

The primary research topics addressed in their publications involve:

  • Climate variability and models
  • Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
  • Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
  • Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research
  • Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
  • Marine and coastal ecosystems
  • Ocean Waves and Remote Sensing

Michael J. McPhaden has collaborated extensively with several coauthors, including:

  • Wenju Cai
  • Agus Santoso
  • Tao Geng
  • Lixin Wu
  • Motoki Nagura

They have published in various scientific venues, frequently appearing in:

  • Geophysical Research Letters
  • Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans
  • Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
  • Geophysical Monograph
  • Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

Recent papers authored or coauthored by Michael J. McPhaden include:

  • Climate impacts of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation on South America, 2020, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
  • Changing El Niño-Southern Oscillation in a warming climate, 2021, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment
  • Evaluating Climate Models with the CLIVAR 2020 ENSO Metrics Package, 2020, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
  • Increased occurrences of consecutive La Niña events under global warming, 2023, Nature
  • Decadal climate variability in the tropical Pacific: Characteristics, causes, predictability, and prospects, 2021, Science

In recognition of their scientific contributions, Michael J. McPhaden was named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2014.

Best Publications

  • Increasing frequency of extreme El Niño events due to greenhouse warming

    Wenju Cai;Wenju Cai;Simon Borlace;Matthieu Lengaigne;Peter van Rensch

  • ENSO as an Integrating Concept in Earth Science

    Michael J. McPhaden;Stephen E. Zebiak;Michael H. Glantz

  • Genesis and Evolution of the 1997-98 El Niño

    Michael J. McPhaden

  • Recent intensification of wind-driven circulation in the Pacific and the ongoing warming hiatus

    Matthew Heathcote England;Shayne McGregor;J Paul Spence;Gerald A Meehl

  • The Tropical Ocean‐Global Atmosphere observing system: A decade of progress

    Michael J. McPhaden;Antonio J. Busalacchi;Robert Cheney;Jean-René Donguy

  • El Niño–Southern Oscillation complexity

    Axel Timmermann;Axel Timmermann;Soon Il An;Jong Seong Kug;Fei Fei Jin

  • Increasing intensity of El Niño in the central‐equatorial Pacific

    Tong Lee;Michael J. McPhaden

  • ENSO and greenhouse warming

    Wenju Cai;Wenju Cai;Agus Santoso;Guojian Wang;Sang Wook Yeh

  • Biological and Chemical Response of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean to the 1997-98 El Niño

    F. P. Chavez;P. G. Strutton;G. E. Friederich;R. A. Feely

  • Enhanced warming over the global subtropical western boundary currents

    Lixin Wu;Wenju Cai;Liping Zhang;Hisashi Nakamura

  • Observations of Warm Water Volume Changes in the Equatorial Pacific and Their Relationship to El Niño and La Niña

    Christopher S. Meinen;Michael J. McPhaden

  • Pantropical Climate Interactions

    Wenju Cai;Wenju Cai;Lixin Wu;Matthieu Lengaigne;Matthieu Lengaigne;Tim Li

  • Increased frequency of extreme La Niña events under greenhouse warming

    Wenju Cai;Wenju Cai;Guojian Wang;Guojian Wang;Agus Santoso;Michael J. Mcphaden

  • Climate impacts of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation on South America

    Wenju Cai;Wenju Cai;Michael J. McPhaden;Alice M. Grimm;Regina R. Rodrigues

  • Slowdown of the meridional overturning circulation in the upper Pacific Ocean

    Michael J. McPhaden;Dongxiao Zhang;Dongxiao Zhang

  • Observations of coupling between surface wind stress and sea surface temperature in the Eastern Tropical Pacific

    Dudley B. Chelton;Steven K. Esbensen;Michael G. Schlax;Nicolai Thum

  • RAMA: The Research Moored Array for African–Asian–Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction*

    Michael J. Mcphaden;Gary Meyers;K. Ando;Y. Masumoto

  • Increased variability of eastern Pacific El Niño under greenhouse warming

    Wenju Cai;Guojian Wang;Guojian Wang;Boris Dewitte;Lixin Wu

  • Changing El Niño–Southern Oscillation in a warming climate

    Wenju Cai;Wenju Cai;Agus Santoso;Agus Santoso;Matthew Collins;Boris Dewitte

  • Mechanism of the Zonal Displacements of the Pacific Warm Pool: Implications for ENSO

    Joël Picaut;Mansour Ioualalen;Christophe E. Menkès;Thierry Delcroix

  • Forcing of intraseasonal Kelvin waves in the equatorial Pacific

    W. S. Kessler;M. J. McPhaden;K. M. Weickmann

Frequent Co-Authors

Wenju Cai
Wenju Cai Ocean University of China
Jérôme Vialard
Jérôme Vialard Université Paris Cité
Eric Guilyardi
Eric Guilyardi Université Paris Cité
Matthieu Lengaigne
Matthieu Lengaigne University of Montpellier
Gregory R. Foltz
Gregory R. Foltz Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
Antonio J. Busalacchi
Antonio J. Busalacchi University of Maryland, College Park
Meghan F. Cronin
Meghan F. Cronin Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Tong Lee
Tong Lee California Institute of Technology
Thierry Delcroix
Thierry Delcroix Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
Axel Timmermann
Axel Timmermann Pusan National University

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