Purpose of Review

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon exhibits considerable diversity in the amplitude, pattern, and temporal evolution. The processes causing ENSO diversity are reviewed with focus on the role of atmospheric feedback.

Recent Findings

Due to the zonal and meridional asymmetry in tropical Pacific climate, atmospheric response to sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies is highly nonlinear. This leads to diversity in the amplitude and pattern of El Niño, as well as asymmetry in the pattern and duration of El Niño and La Niña. Atmospheric convection changes associated with tropical Pacific decadal variability may modulate ENSO diversity. Furthermore, variability in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans provides additional sources of ENSO diversity through pan-tropical adjustments of atmospheric convection.

Summary

The complexity of atmospheric feedback plays an important role in ENSO diversity, but is poorly represented in the Bjerknes feedback. Incorporating convective threshold in defining SST anomalies may help explain various features of ENSO diversity in a unified framework.

中文翻译：

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从大气角度看ENSO多样性

审查目的

厄尔尼诺-南方涛动（ENSO）现象在振幅，模式和时间演变方面表现出相当大的多样性。审查了ENSO多样性的过程，重点是大气反馈的作用。

最近的发现

由于热带太平洋气候中纬向和经向的不对称性，大气对海表温度（SST）异常的响应是高度非线性的。这导致了厄尔尼诺现象的幅度和模式的多样性，以及厄尔尼诺现象和拉尼娜现象的模式和持续时间的不对称性。与热带太平洋年代际变化相关的大气对流变化可能会调节ENSO的多样性。此外，印度洋和大西洋的多变性通过大气对流的泛热带调整提供了ENSO多样性的其他来源。

概要

大气反馈的复杂性在ENSO多样性中起着重要作用，但在Bjerknes反馈中却没有得到很好的体现。将对流阈值纳入定义SST异常可能有助于在统一框架中解释ENSO多样性的各种特征。