An Equatorial Ocean Recharge Paradigm for ENSO. Part II: A Stripped-Down Coupled Model

Abstract

The conceptual recharge oscillator model intuitively established in Part I is derived from a dynamical framework of a Cane?Zebiak type model for tropical ocean?atmosphere interaction. A two-strip approximation to the equatorial ocean dynamics and one-strip approximation to the SST dynamics are employed to obtain a stripped-down coupled model that captures the main physics of the Cane?Zebiak type model. It is shown that the conceptual recharge oscillator model can be obtained from the stripped-down coupled model with a two-box approximation in the zonal direction or a low-frequency approximation to filter out high-frequency modes. Linear solutions of the stripped-down model are analytically solved and the dependence of coupled modes on various model parameters is delineated. In different parameter regimes, the stripped-down coupled model describes a coupled-wave mode and a mixed SST?ocean-dynamics mode that results from the merger of a nonoscillatory ocean adjustment mode with an SST mode. These two coupled oscillatory modes undergo a further merger. In the neighborhood of this merger, the leading mode of the system becomes a generalized mixed mode. It is suggested that the slow ENSO regime can be best characterized by this generalized mixed mode whose essential physics are described by the conceptual recharge oscillator model proposed in Part I.