The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the most prominent climate system in the tropical Pacific. However, its simulation, including the amplitude, phase locking, and asymmetry of its two phases, is not well reproduced by the current climate system models. In this study, the sensitivity of the ENSO simulation to the convection schemes is discussed using the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology Earth System version 3.0 (NESM3) model. Three convection schemes, including the default, the default coupled with the stochastic multicloud model (SMCM), and the default used in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6), are implemented. The model results reveal that the low-level cloud cover and surface net shortwave radiation are best represented over the tropical Pacific in the model containing the SMCM. The simulations of the ENSO behavior’s response to changes in the convection scheme are not uniform. The model results reveal that the model containing the SMCM performs best in terms of simulating the seasonal cycle of the sea surface temperature anomaly along the equatorial Pacific, the phase locking, and the power spectrum of ENSO but with a modest ENSO amplitude. Compared to the model containing the default convection scheme, the coupling of the default scheme and the SMCM provides a good simulation of the ENSO’s asymmetry, while the model containing the CMIP6 convection scheme outperforms the others in terms of the simulation of the ENSO’s amplitude. Two atmospheric feedback processes were further discussed to investigate the factors controlling the ENSO’s amplitude. The analyses revealed that the strongest positive atmospheric Bjerknes feedback and the thermodynamic damping of the surface net heat flux occurred in the model containing the CMIP6 convection scheme, suggesting that the atmospheric Bjerknes feedback may overwhelm the heat flux damping feedback when determining the ENSO’s amplitude. The results of this study demonstrate that perfectly modeling and predicting the ENSO is not simple, and it is still a large challenge and issue for the entire model community in the future.

厄尔尼诺-南方涛动（ENSO）是热带太平洋地区最突出的气候系统。但是，目前的气候系统模型不能很好地再现其模拟，包括振幅，相位锁定和两个相位的不对称性。在这项研究中，使用南京信息工程大学地球系统3.0版（NESM3）模型讨论了ENSO模拟对流方案的敏感性。实现了三种对流方案，包括默认的，默认的与随机多云模型（SMCM）耦合以及在耦合模型比较项目第六阶段（CMIP6）中使用的默认对流方案。模型结果表明，在包含SMCM的模型中，低层云量和地表净短波辐射最能代表热带太平洋地区。ENSO行为对流方案变化的响应模拟并不统一。模型结果表明，包含SMCM的模型在模拟沿赤道太平洋的海表温度异常的季节周期，锁相和ENSO的功率谱方面表现最佳，但ENSO振幅适中。与包含默认对流方案的模型相比，默认方案和SMCM的耦合可以很好地模拟ENSO的不对称性，而包含CMIP6对流方案的模型在ENSO幅度模拟方面优于其他模型。进一步讨论了两个大气反馈过程，以研究控制ENSO振幅的因素。分析表明，在包含CMIP6对流方案的模型中，发生了最强的正大气Bjerknes反馈和表面净热通量的热力学阻尼，这表明在确定ENSO振幅时，大气Bjerknes反馈可能会压倒热通量阻尼反馈。这项研究的结果表明，对ENSO进行完美的建模和预测并不简单，而且对于整个模型社区而言，这仍然是一个巨大的挑战和课题。