El Nino/Southern Oscillation

The El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon is the strongest natural climate fluctuation on the short-range climatic time scale. It influences not only regional but also global climate. Within the international TOGA (Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere) project (1985-1995) observationalists, theoretians and numerical modelers work together to understand ENSO and develop coupled ocean-atmosphere models which can be used for ENSO prediction. This report presents a brief description of the current ENSO theory together with a review on the state of the art in ENSO modeling. ENSO predictability is addressed and an outlook for ENSO research work is given. (WEN)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RR 1347(129) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman