El Niño-Southern Oscillation Dynamics – Scale Interactions and Response to Greenhouse Warming in the ICCP High-Resolution CESM Simulation

Christian Wengel1, Malte F Stuecker2, Sun-Seon Lee3 and Axel Timmermann3, (1)IBS Center for Climate Physics, Pusan National University, Busan, South Korea, (2)IBS Center for Climate Physics, Pusan, South Korea, (3)Center for Climate Physics, Institute for Basic Science, Busan, South Korea
Abstract:
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon is investigated in a high-resolution global climate model simulation conducted with the Community Earth System Model (CESM). The grid spacing is 0.25° in the atmosphere and 0.1° in the ocean. Results are presented for a suite of control and greenhouse warming simulations. Under present-day conditions the high-resolution CESM simulates ENSO with realistic amplitude and spectral features. Our analysis highlights the roles of well-resolved tropical instability waves, westerly wind bursts, stratification and seasonal cycle changes in the inception and termination processes of ENSO. We will present a novel perspective of scale-interactions in ENSO dynamics and their changes in response to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.