Figure Captions Figure 1. In situ components of the ENSO Observing System. The four major elements are (1) the TAO/TRITON array of moored buoys, (2) an island tide-gauge network, (3) surface drifters, (4) the Volunteer Observing Ship program. This ensemble of instruments deliver in near-real time via satellite data on surface and subsurface temperature and salinity, wind speed and direction, sea level, and current velocity. (Courtesy of the TAO Project Office).
Figure 2. SST anomaly composites showing different origin and development of El Niños in the last five decades. (a) El Niños between 1950 and 1976, (b) El Niños between 1977 and 1996, (c) the 1997-98 El Niño, and (d) the 2002-03 El Niño. The composites are calculated by averaging the SST anomalies during March-May of the El Niño year. Since the 2002-03 El Niño starts earlier, its composite used the SST anomalies of December 2001 to February 2002.
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of the delayed oscillator for ENSO.
Figure 4. Schematic diagram of the recharge oscillator for ENSO. (a) The four phases of the recharge oscillation: (I) the warm phase, (II) the warm to cold transition phase, (III) the cold phase, and (IV) the cold to warm transition phase. (b) The time series of the Nino3 SST anomalies (dashed) and the warm water volume anomalies (solid) over the entire equatorial tropical Pacific Ocean (5°S-5°N, 120°E-80°W) (Courtesy of Chris Meinen).
Figure 5. Schematic diagram of the western Pacific oscillator for ENSO.
Figure 6. Schematic diagram of the advective-reflective oscillator for ENSO.
Figure 7. The two leading modes of Niño-4 SST anomalies. The upper panel represents the reconstruction of Niño-4 SST with the ENSO and decadal modes (25% and 20% of variance, respectively). The lower panel represents the regression of SST anomalies upon each mode; note that the color scales are different (Courtesy of Mojib Latif).