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Understanding ENSO Diversity

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · 2014 · Vol. 96(6) · pp. 921–938

Antonietta Capotondi✉(NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory)Andrew T. Wittenberg(NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)Matthew Newman(University of Colorado Boulder)Emanuele Di Lorenzo(Georgia Institute of Technology)Jin‐Yi Yu(University of California, Irvine)Pascale Braconnot(Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement)Julia E. Cole(University of Arizona)Boris Dewitte(Laboratoire d’Études en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales)Benjamin S. GieseÉric Guilyardi(Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace)Fei‐Fei Jin(University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)Kristopher B. Karnauskas(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)Benjamín Kirtman(University of Miami)Tong Lee(Jet Propulsion Laboratory)Niklas Schneider(University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa)Yan Xue(NOAA Climate Prediction Center)Sang‐Wook Yeh(Hanyang University)

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Abstract

Abstract El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a naturally occurring mode of tropical Pacific variability, with global impacts on society and natural ecosystems. While it has long been known that El Niño events display a diverse range of amplitudes, triggers, spatial patterns, and life cycles, the realization that ENSO’s impacts can be highly sensitive to this event-to-event diversity is driving a renewed interest in the subject. This paper surveys our current state of knowledge of ENSO diversity, identifies key gaps in understanding, and outlines some promising future research directions.

Climate variability and models Geology and Paleoclimatology Research Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones ResearchDiversity (politics)El Niño Southern OscillationEvent (particle physics)Range (aeronautics)EcosystemGeographyRealization (probability)ClimatologyEnvironmental scienceEnvironmental resource management