Off the Pacific coast of Ecuador stretching west for thousands of kilometres is a tongue shaped protrusion of ocean that has been cooling for the last 30 years. It has received scant attention by climate scientists and now defies some of the models they have generated over the last 30 years. The tongue is estimated by some to be capable of reducing overall global temperature increase by as much as 30%.
This is not something that yet should be celebrated as a panacea to climate change but more likely a different variety of it capable of wreaking havoc in the human inhabited world.
Is it time we paid more attention to such anomalies, however much they confound our current thinking about the Earth’s climate?
Cooling of water at the equator occurs due to upwelling. The cause of the upwelling is unknown. I think the reason is the rotation of the Earth and the centrifugal force at the Earth's equator - an ellipsoid of rotation.
The answer to your question:
1. The ocean surface temperature at the equator does not change much.
2. If this happens, the cold air in the equatorial convergence zone will not move to tropical latitudes. This air rises upward.
Conclusion. I do not see a physical mechanism for the influence of water temperature at the equator on the Earth's climate.
First of all, we have to distinguish the scale of the two phenomena. Cold tongue in the Pacific is a regional phenomena whereas the climate warming is a global phenomena which affects the whole planet. So global climate change poses a more profound and persistent risk to the stability of the Earth's climate system than the cold tongue in the Pacific. The Pacific Cold Tongue is associated with the La Niña phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. It is a phenomenon within a more important one, i.e climate change. The latter influences the former. But actually, global climate change makes the cold tongue less intense but at the same time other regions warmer than before. Although there are some mysteries about it, climate scientists know the interaction of the cold tongue within the complexity of the climate system. Suspected drivers include the melting of Antarctic glaciers as global temperatures rise, and ozone depletion in conjunction with rising greenhouse gas emissions, which are intensifying the movement of cold air from Antarctica. Wherever many regions undergo warming, there will always be certain regions experiencing cooling. However, the area where warming occurs is much larger than areas where cooling occurs. So I would not worry about it. You may want to look at:
theweek.com/news/environment/961878/cold-tongue-pacific-ocean-cool-patch-climate-change
Also, you also have an Atlantic cold tongue but this one is weakening:
www.nature.com/articles/ngeo1078
Check out my discussion materials:
Why is there always upwelling in all the oceans at the equator, despite El Niño and La Niña?
The Trade winds blow the surface ocean north westward and south westward from the equator which draws cold water from below.
Borys
Firstly, the equator is characterized by the presence of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), where trade winds from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres converge. The trade winds blow from east to west along the equator, causing the surface waters to pile up on the western side of the ocean basins (this accumulation of warm surface water is known as the Western Pacific Warm Pool) and to be reduced on the Eastern side of ocean basins. As the trade winds push surface waters westward, deep, colder water from below the ocean's surface is brought up to replace the displaced warm water (i.e. upwelling) on the East side of ocean basins.
Secondly, during El Niño events, the normal trade winds weaken, and sometimes reverse direction. This weakening of the trade winds can temporarily reduce the upwelling along the equator and reduce upwelling on the East sides of ocean basins. In contrast, during La Niña events, the trade winds strengthen, potentially enhancing the normal upwelling conditions.
Everything that is considered reliably known later turns out to be false. This is the dialectical law of philosophy "negation of negation."
What can you see on a map of surface atmospheric pressure along the equator? There are no gradients. No pressure gradient - no wind. Air movement from east to west over the equator at a speed of 6-7 km per hour is observed, but this is not wind. Along the equator, the atmosphere lags behind the rotation of the solid shell at a speed of 6-7 km per hour.
At the equator, the hydrosphere lags behind the rotation of the Earth's solid shell by 3-4 km per hour. There are no drift currents at the equator. But the water shifts relative to the solid shell and creates the illusion of flowing from east to west at a speed of up to 1.5 meters per second.
At the western borders of the ocean the sea level is higher. The same is observed in inland seas, for example in the Black and Caspian Seas.
Regarding the La Niño and El Niño climate, I have research results. They are published in the book Volume 3. Previously unknown aspects of the formation of climate, weather, including natural hazards https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Borys-Kapochkin/publications
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