Comments on “Slowly Propagating Disturbances in a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Model”

Abstract

It is pointed out that the phenomenon of El Nino and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) exhibits a time scale of the order of 2-9 years, while, according to atmospheric models, the atmosphere itself does not have such low-frequency variability. The intriguing hypothesis has been considered that the atmosphere and ocean form a strongly coupled system in the tropics with an inherent periodicity of 2-9 years. A number of studies have been conducted regarding this idea. However, the obtained models have a number of limitations. The present investigation is concerned with a model which relaxes some of these limitations. The model ocean is a reduced-gravity model which also has explicit thermodynamics, including both horizontal advection and vertical redistribution of heat. The model atmosphere is a linear, single-baroclinic-mode model driven by the heating function Q.