Seasonal and interannual variability in a hybrid coupled GCM

Abstract

A hybrid coupled model for the tropical Pacific ocean-atmosphere system is used to simulate El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) interannual variability and to investigate the role of coupling in the seasonal cycle. An ocean GCM (OGCM) is coupled to an empirical atmospheric model that specifies a wind stress field from a given sea surface temperature (SST) field. Simulated ENSO anomalies have a reasonable spatial structure compared to observations, and the form is not strongly sensitive to the atmospheric model or mixing scheme. SST anomalies evolve largely as a standing oscillation, though with some westward propagation. -from Authors