Simple dynamical models capturing the key features of the Central Pacific El Niño
Abstract
The Central Pacific El Niño (CP El Niño) has been frequently observed in recent decades. The phenomenon is characterized by an anomalous warm sea surface temperature (SST) confined to the central Pacific and has different teleconnections from the traditional El Niño with major societal impact. Here, a simple modeling framework is developed and shown to capture the key mechanisms of the CP El Niño. In addition to the SST, other major characteristics of the CP El Niño such as the rising branch of the anomalous Walker circulation being shifted to the central Pacific and the eastern Pacific cooling with a shallow thermocline are all captured by this simple coupled model. Key features of the model are nonlinear advection of SST and effective stochastic wind bursts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 03, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1614533113
Entities
People
- Andrew J. Majda
- Nan Chen
Organizations
- New York University
- Office of Naval Research