Abstract
A number of different models of varying complexity have been developed and used in the last two decades to simulate El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) interannual climate variability in the tropical Pacific (Neelin et al., 1992). These models range from simple conceptual systems, involving only one equation and one variable, to Coupled General Circulation Models (CGCMs) with a large number of degrees of freedom. All of these models have played a role in under standing ENSO. Conceptual low order models drastically reduce the spatial structure of the atmosphere and ocean. Simple models also exist which represent the ocean and/or atmosphere with simplified sets of partial differential equations. Both of these types of model are useful for illustrating fundamental processes of air-sea interaction and have been developed as tools to understand more complicated systems. Intermediate coupled models using reduce-gravity ocean and atmosphere components and realistic thermodynamics are sophisticated enough to produce realistic solutions, and are also simple enough to diagnose (Zebiak and Cane, 1987). High resolution CGCMs can be closely compared to observations, but the important processes at work in them are not always easy to determine.
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Macías, J., Stephenson, D., Terray, L., Belamari, S. (1997). Interannual variability simulated in the Tropical Pacific. In: Díaz, J.I. (eds) The Mathematics of Models for Climatology and Environment. NATO ASI Series, vol 48. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60603-8_12
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