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Climate Science:
Investigating Climatic
and Environmental Processes
Interannual
Scale
The
following animation from NOAA's Climate Diagnostic Center is one way to
visualize the dynamics of ENSO based on the Zebiak-Cane model. (Cane,
1987.) Other models present different views of ENSO's irregular pulse.
From
NOAA's Climate Diagnostic Center:
In the ocean, large-scale wave-like motions play a large role in ENSO
(El Niño - Southern Oscillation). In this figure we see a perspective
view of the entire Tropical Pacific Ocean. The animation follows the evolution
of sea level (the undulating surface) and sea-surface temperature (color)
for a Warm event followed by a Cold event as simulated by the numerical
model of Battisti (1988). This model
is a version of the Zebiak-Cane model, one of the first coupled atmosphere-ocean
models used to make predictions of ENSO. Motions in the real world are
significantly more complex than those shown here. See Idealized
ENSO Simulation for more.
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