The objective of this work was to correlate the Northeast of Brazil (NEB) rainfall grouped in one homogeneous cluster with the global sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. The data covered the period from 1945 to 1985 and the analyses shows that there are influences from the Atlantic and Pacific ocean over the eastern NEB's rainfall, with a higher correlation for the Atlantic, especially in the Dipole area (correlation values greater than 0.6, and p < 0.05). The 1995 Servain and Arnault meridional (Atlantic Dipole) and equatorial modes were detected during several lag analyses. In the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean in the region of El Niño-3 negative correlations were found, indicating the presence of the descendant branches of the Walker cell in the sector east of the NEB.
ITCZ; Walker; atlantic dipole; ENSO
