The following McGregor et al (2014) linked reference about the recent (since 2002) strengthening of the Pacific trade winds (and the associated Walker Cell circulation) can largely be attributed to the recent trend of warming in the North Atlantic (see the attached figure and associated caption).
McGregor, S., A. Timmermann, M. F. Stuecker, M. H. England, M. Merrifield, F.-F. Jin and Y. Chikamoto, (2014), "Recent Walker circulation strengthening and Pacific cooling amplified by Atlantic warming", Nature Climate Change; doi:10.1038/nclimate2330
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2330.htmlAbstract: "An unprecedented strengthening of Pacific trade winds since the late 1990s has caused widespread climate perturbations, including rapid sea-level rise in the western tropical Pacific, strengthening of Indo-Pacific ocean currents, and an increased uptake of heat in the equatorial Pacific thermocline. The corresponding intensification of the atmospheric Walker circulation is also associated with sea surface cooling in the eastern Pacific, which has been identified as one of the contributors to the current pause in global surface warming. In spite of recent progress in determining the climatic impacts of the Pacific trade wind acceleration, the cause of this pronounced trend in atmospheric circulation remains unknown. Here we analyse a series of climate model experiments along with observational data to show that the recent warming trend in Atlantic sea surface temperature and the corresponding trans-basin displacements of the main atmospheric pressure centres were key drivers of the observed Walker circulation intensification, eastern Pacific cooling, North American rainfall trends and western Pacific sea-level rise. Our study suggests that global surface warming has been partly offset by the Pacific climate response to enhanced Atlantic warming since the early 1990s."
However, one of the co-authors of the McGregor et al 2014 article, Matthew England, is quoted (in the subsequent extract from the linked Discovery website) as saying: "It will be difficult to predict when the Pacific cooling trend and its contribution to the global hiatus in surface temperatures will come to an end. However, a large El Niño event is one candidate that has the potential to drive the system back to a more synchronized Atlantic/Pacific warming situation."
Caption for figure: "Atlantic and Pacific SST anomalies and their effect on SLP anomaly and wind anomalies. a, Basin-averaged Atlantic(30 S–60 N, 70W–20 E) and Pacific (30 S–60 N, 120 E–90 W) SST anomalies from the ERSST dataset ; the solid red and blue lines represent 11-month running mean values of Atlantic and Pacific basin SST anomalies, respectively. b, Detrended SST anomaly difference (shading; 11-month running mean TBV index) between the red and blue time series in the upper panel, western tropical Pacific (160 E–180 E and 5 S–5 N); orange (blue) shading indicates a warmer (colder) Atlantic compared to the Pacific ; detrended zonal surface wind velocity anomalies (black line) from twentieth century reanalysis24 (11-month running mean filter); and the 11-month running mean of the detrended Atlantic/Pacific SLP anomaly difference (cyan line, same areas as for SST). The table inset in b gives the correlation coefficient calculated across the three time series shown."
http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/global-warming-kicks-up-record-pacific-trade-winds-140803.htmExtract: "It will be difficult to predict when the Pacific cooling trend and its contribution to the global hiatus in surface temperatures will come to an end," co-author Matthew England said. "However, a large El Niño event is one candidate that has the potential to drive the system back to a more synchronized Atlantic/Pacific warming situation."
However, it is important to note that the following linked Praetorius et al (2014) article provides paleo-evidence that the North Pacific and the North Atlantic will likely synchronize with increasing global warming, meaning that the global cooling effect of the recent El Nino hiatus is likely to be short lived
Summer K. Praetorius, Alan C. Mix, (2014), "Synchronization of North Pacific and Greenland climates preceded abrupt deglacial warming", Science 25 July 2014: Vol. 345 no. 6195 pp. 444-448 DOI: 10.1126/science.1252000
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6195/444Furthermore, the following linked reference indicates that before 2040 CMIP5 models indicate that the amplitude of the ENSO phases will increase, indicating that when the El Nino events return for the next 25-years they are likely to be stronger than previously experienced leading to more abrupt climate change and more abrupt ice mass loss from the WAIS.
Seon Tae Kim, Wenju Cai, Fei-Fei Jin, Agus Santoso, Lixin Wu, Eric Guilyardi & Soon-Il An, (2014), "Response of El Niño sea surface temperature variability to greenhouse warming", Nature Climate Change, doi:10.1038/nclimate2326
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2326.htmlAbstract: "The destructive environmental and socio-economic impacts of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) demand an improved understanding of how ENSO will change under future greenhouse warming. Robust projected changes in certain aspects of ENSO have been recently established. However, there is as yet no consensus on the change in the magnitude of the associated sea surface temperature (SST) variability, commonly used to represent ENSO amplitude, despite its strong effects on marine ecosystems and rainfall worldwide. Here we show that the response of ENSO SST amplitude is time-varying, with an increasing trend in ENSO amplitude before 2040, followed by a decreasing trend thereafter. We attribute the previous lack of consensus to an expectation that the trend in ENSO amplitude over the entire twenty-first century is unidirectional, and to unrealistic model dynamics of tropical Pacific SST variability. We examine these complex processes across 22 models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) database, forced under historical and greenhouse warming conditions. The nine most realistic models identified show a strong consensus on the time-varying response and reveal that the non-unidirectional behaviour is linked to a longitudinal difference in the surface warming rate across the Indo-Pacific basin. Our results carry important implications for climate projections and climate adaptation pathways."