Distinguished Effects of Interannual Salinity Variability on the Development of the Central-Pacific El Nino Events

El Nio events in the central equatorial Pacific (CP) are gaining increased attention,due to their increasing intensity within the global warming context.Various physical processes have been identified in the climate system that can be responsible for the modulation of El Nio,especially the effects of interannual salinity variability.In this work,a comprehensive data analysis is performed to illustrate the effects of interannual salinity variability using surface and subsurface salinity fields from the Met Office ENSEMBLES (EN3) quality controlled ocean dataset.It is demonstrated that during the developing phase of an El Nio event,a negative sea surface salinity (SSS) anomaly in the western-central basin acts to freshen the mixed layer (ML),decrease oceanic density in the upper ocean,and stabilize the upper layers.These related oceanic processes tend to reduce the vertical mixing and entrainment of subsurface water at the base of the ML,which further enhances the warm sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies associated with the El Nio event.However,the effects of interannually variable salinity are much more significant during the CP-El Nio than during the eastern Pacific (EP) El Nio,indicating that the salinity effect might be an important contributor to the development of CP-El Nio events.     

Different Impact of Central Pacific and Eastern Pacific El Nio on the Duration of Sudden Stratospheric Warming

The NCEP–NCAR reanalysis dataset and the Had ISST dataset(1959–2014) are used to analyze the impact of two types of El Nio events, i.e., eastern Pacific El Nio(EP-El Nio) and central Pacific El Nio(CP-El Nio) events, on the duration of major and minor sudden stratospheric warmings(SSWs) in Northern Hemisphere winter(November to February). Although the frequency of major and minor SSWs during different types of El Nio shows no distinct differences, the duration of both major and minor SSWs during CP-El Nio is shorter than that during EP-El Nio. The spatial distribution of geopotential height anomalies preceding major SSWs resembles the western Pacific(WP) teleconnection pattern, while the spatial distribution of geopotential height anomalies preceding minor SSWs bears similarity to the Pacific–North America(PNA)teleconnection pattern. An enhancement of the strength of both wavenumber 1 and wavenumber 2 is found before major SSWs. Before minor SSWs, wavenumber 1 is also strengthened, but wavenumber 2 is weakened. The analysis also reveals that EP-El Nio tends to induce positive phases of PNA and WP teleconnections, while CP-El Nio induces negative-phase WP teleconnection. As the positive phases of the PNA and WP teleconnections are related to the strengthening of wavenumber 1, EP-El Nio causes an enhancement of wavenumber 1 in the high-latitude upper troposphere and an enhancement of the upward wave flux in the high-latitude stratosphere, accompanied by a negative anomaly in Eliassen–Palm flux divergence in the subpolar stratosphere, which accounts for the longer SSW duration during EP-El Nio than during CP-El Nio.     

Simulation of salinity variability and the related freshwater flux forcing in the tropical Pacific: An evaluation using the Beijing normal university earth system model (BNU-ESM)

The climatology and interannual variability of sea surface salinity(SSS) and freshwater flux(FWF) in the equatorial Pacific are analyzed and evaluated using simulations from the Beijing Normal University Earth System Model(BNU-ESM).The simulated annual climatology and interannual variations of SSS, FWF, mixed layer depth(MLD), and buoyancy flux agree with those observed in the equatorial Pacific. The relationships among the interannual anomaly fields simulated by BNU-ESM are analyzed to illustrate the climate feedbacks induced by FWF in the tropical Pacific. The largest interannual variations of SSS and FWF are located in the western-central equatorial Pacific. A positive FWF feedback effect on sea surface temperature(SST) in the equatorial Pacific is identified. As a response to El Ni ?no–Southern Oscillation(ENSO),the interannual variation of FWF induces ocean processes which, in turn, enhance ENSO. During El Ni ?no, a positive FWF anomaly in the western-central Pacific(an indication of increased precipitation rates) acts to enhance a negative salinity anomaly and a negative surface ocean density anomaly, leading to stable stratification in the upper ocean. Hence, the vertical mixing and entrainment of subsurface water into the mixed layer are reduced, and the associated El Ni ?no is enhanced. Related to this positive feedback, the simulated FWF bias is clearly reflected in SSS and SST simulations, with a positive FWF perturbation into the ocean corresponding to a low SSS and a small surface ocean density in the western-central equatorial Pacific warm pool.     

Contrasting the Skills and Biases of Deterministic Predictions for the Two Types of El Nio

The tropical Pacific has begun to experience a new type of El Nio, which has occurred particularly frequently during the last decade, referred to as the central Pacific(CP) El Nio. Various coupled models with different degrees of complexity have been used to make real-time El Nio predictions, but high uncertainty still exists in their forecasts. It remains unknown as to how much of this uncertainty is specifically related to the new CP-type El Nio and how much is common to both this type and the conventional Eastern Pacific(EP)-type El Nio. In this study, the deterministic performance of an El Nio–Southern Oscillation(ENSO) ensemble prediction system is examined for the two types of El Nio. Ensemble hindcasts are run for the nine EP El Nio events and twelve CP El Nio events that have occurred since 1950. The results show that(1) the skill scores for the EP events are significantly better than those for the CP events, at all lead times;(2) the systematic forecast biases come mostly from the prediction of the CP events; and(3) the systematic error is characterized by an overly warm eastern Pacific during the spring season, indicating a stronger spring prediction barrier for the CP El Nio. Further improvements to coupled atmosphere–ocean models in terms of CP El Nio prediction should be recognized as a key and high-priority task for the climate prediction community.     

Variable and Robust East Asian Monsoon Rainfall Response to El Nio over the Past 60 Years(1957–2016)

Severe flooding occurred in southern and northern China during the summer of 2016 when the 2015 super El Nio decayed to a normal condition. However, the mean precipitation during summer(June–July-August) 2016 does not show significant anomalies, suggesting that — over East Asia(EA) — seasonal mean anomalies have limited value in representing hydrological hazards. Scrutinizing season-evolving precipitation anomalies associated with 16 El Nio episodes during 1957–2016 reveals that, over EA, the spatiotemporal patterns among the four categories of El Nio events are quite variable, due to a large range of variability in the intensity and evolution of El Nio events and remarkable subseasonal migration of the rainfall anomalies. The only robust seasonal signal is the dry anomalies over central North China during the El Nio developing summer. Distinguishing strong and weak El Nio impacts is important. Only strong El Nio events can persistently enhance EA subtropical frontal precipitation from the peak season of El Nio to the ensuing summer, by stimulating intense interaction between the anomalous western Pacific anticyclone(WPAC) and underlying dipolar sea surface temperature anomalies in the Indo-Pacific warm pool, thereby maintaining the WPAC and leading to a prolonged El Nio impact on EA. A weak El Nio may also enhance the post-El Nio summer rainfall over EA, but through a different physical process: the WPAC re-emerges as a forced response to the rapid cooling in the eastern Pacific. The results suggest that the skillful prediction of rainfall over continental EA requires the accurate prediction of not only the strength and evolution of El Nio, but also the subseasonal migration of EA rainfall anomalies.     

Understanding the Development of the 2018/19 Central Pacific El Ni?o

A central Pacific(CP) El Ni?o event occurred in 2018/19. Previous studies have shown that different mechanisms are responsible for different subtypes of CP El Ni?o events(CP-I El Ni?o and CP-II El Ni?o). By comparing the evolutions of surface winds, ocean temperatures, and heat budgets of the CP-I El Ni?o, CP-II El Ni?o, and 2018/19 El Ni?o, it is illustrated that the subtropical westerly anomalies in the North Pacific, which led to anomalous convergence of Ekman flow and surface warming in the ...     

An Incursion of Off-Equatorial Subsurface Cold Water and Its Role in Triggering the “Double Dip” La Nia Event of 2011

Based on Global Ocean Data Assimilation System(GODAS) and NCEP reanalysis data, atmospheric and oceanic processes possibly responsible for the onset of the 2011/12 La Nia event, which followed the 2010/11 La Nia even—referred to as a "double dip" La Nia—are investigated. The key mechanisms involved in activating the 2011/12 La Nia are illustrated by these datasets. Results show that neutral conditions were already evident in the equatorial eastern Pacific during the decaying phase of the 2010/11 La Nia. However, isothermal analyses show obviously cold water still persisting at the surface and at subsurface depths in off-equatorial regions throughout early 2011, being most pronounced in the tropical South Pacific. The negative SST anomalies in the tropical South Pacific acted to strengthen a southern wind across the equator. The subsurface cold water in the tropical South Pacific then spread northward and broke into the equatorial region at the thermocline depth. This incursion process of off-equatorial subsurface cold water successfully interrupted the eastern propagation of warm water along the equator, which had previously accumulated at subsurface depths in the warm pool during the 2010/11 La Nia event. Furthermore, the incursion process strengthened as a result of the off-equatorial effects, mostly in the tropical South Pacific. The negative SST anomalies then reappeared in the central basin in summer 2011, and acted to trigger local coupled air–sea interactions to produce atmospheric–oceanic anomalies that developed and evolved with the second cooling in the fall of 2011.     

Upper-Ocean Dynamical Features and Prediction of the Super El Ni?o in 2015/16:A Comparison with the Cases in 1982/83 and 1997/98

The 2015/16 super El Ni?o event has been widely recognized as comparable to the 1982/83 and 1997/98 El Ni?o events.This study examines the main features of upper-ocean dynamics in this new super event,contrasts them to those in the two historical super events,and quantitatively compares the major oceanic dynamical feedbacks based on a mixed-layer heat budget analysis of the tropical Pacific.During the early stage,this new event is characterized by an eastward propagation of SST anomalies and a weak warm-pool El Ni?o;whereas during its mature phase,it is characterized by a weak westward propagation and a westward-shifted SST anomaly center,mainly due to the strong easterly wind and cold upwelling anomalies in the far eastern Pacific,as well as the westward anomalies of equatorial zonal current and subsurface ocean temperature.The heat budget analysis shows that the thermocline feedback is the most crucial process inducing the SST anomaly growth and phase transition of all the super events,and particularly for this new event,the zonal advective feedback also exerts an important impact on the formation of the strong warming and westward-shifted pattern of SST anomalies.During this event,several westerly wind burst events occur,and oceanic Kelvin waves propagate eastwards before being maintained over eastern Pacific in the mature stage.Meanwhile,there is no evidence for westward propagation of the off-equatorial oceanic Rossby waves though the discharging process of equatorial heat during the development and mature stages.The second generation El Ni?o prediction system of the Beijing Climate Center produced reasonable event real-time operational prediction during 2014–16,wherein the statistical prediction model that considers the preceding oceanic precursors plays an important role in the multi-method ensemble prediction of this super.     

The Amplitude-Duration Relation of Observed El Nio Events

The authors demonstrate that the El Ni o events in the pre-and post-1976 periods show two ampli-tude-duration relations. One is that the stronger El Ni o events have longer durations, which is robust for the moderate El Ni o events; the other is that the stronger El Ni o events have shorter durations but for strong El Nio events. By estimating the sign and amplitude of the nonlinear dynamical heating (NDH) anomalies, the authors illustrate that the NDH anomalies are negligible for moderate El Nio events but large for strong El Nio events. In particular, the large NDH anomalies for strong El Nio events are positive during the growth and mature phases, which favor warmer El Nio events. During the decay phase, however, the negative NDH anomalies start to arise and become increasingly significant with the evolution of the El Nio events, in which the negative NDH anomalies dampen the sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) and cause the El Nio events to reach the SST normal state earlier. This pattern suggests that the nonlinearity tends to increase the intensities of strong El Nio events and shorten their duration, which, together with the previous results showing a positive correlation between the strength of El Nio events and the significance of the effect of nonlinear advection on the events (especially the suppression of nonlinearity on the SSTA during the decay phase), shows that the strong El Nio events tend to have the amplitude-duration relation of the stronger El Nio events with shorter durations. This result also lends support to the assertion that moderate El Nio events possess the amplitude-duration relation of stronger El Nio events with longer durations.     

Nonlinearity Modulating Intensities and Spatial Structures of Central Pacific and Eastern Pacific El Nio Events

This paper compares data from linearized and nonlinear Zebiak–Cane model, as constrained by observed sea surface temperature anomaly(SSTA), in simulating central Pacific(CP) and eastern Pacific(EP) El Nio. The difference between the temperature advections(determined by subtracting those of the linearized model from those of the nonlinear model),referred to here as the nonlinearly induced temperature advection change(NTA), is analyzed. The results demonstrate that the NTA records warming in the central equatorial Pacific during CP El Nio and makes fewer contributions to the structural distinctions of the CP El Nio, whereas it records warming in the eastern equatorial Pacific during EP El Nio, and thus significantly promotes EP El Nio during El Nio–type selection. The NTA for CP and EP El Nio varies in its amplitude,and is smaller in CP El Nio than it is in EP El Nio. These results demonstrate that CP El Nio are weakly modulated by small intensities of NTA, and may be controlled by weak nonlinearity; whereas, EP El Nio are significantly enhanced by large amplitudes of NTA, and are therefore likely to be modulated by relatively strong nonlinearity. These data could explain why CP El Nio are weaker than EP El Nio. Because the NTA for CP and EP El Nio differs in spatial structures and intensities, as well as their roles within different El Nio modes, the diversity of El Nio may be closely related to changes in the nonlinear characteristics of the tropical Pacific.     

Connections Between Different Types of El Nio and Southern/Northern Oscillation

It has long been acknowledged that there are two types of El Nio events, i.e., the eastern Pacific El Nio (EE) and the central Pacific El Nio (CE), according to the initial position of the anomalous warm water and its propagation direction. In this paper, the oceanic and atmospheric evolutions and the possible mechanisms of the two types of El Nio events were examined. It is found that all the El Nio events, CE or EE, could be attributed to the joint impacts of the eastward advection of warm water from the western Pacific warm pool (WPWP) and the local warming in the equatorial eastern Pacific. Before the occurrence of CE events, WPWP had long been in a state of being anomalous warm, so the strength of eastward advection of warm water was much stronger than that of EE, which played a major role in the formation of CE. While for the EE events, most contribution came from the local warming of the equatorial eastern Pacific. It is further identified that the immediate cause leading to the difference of the two types of El Nio events was the asynchronous variations of the Southern Oscillation (SO) and the Northern Oscillation (NO) as defined by Chen in 1984. When the transition from the positive phase of the NO (NO+) to NO- was prior to that from SO+ to SO-, there would be eastward propagation of westerly anomalies from the tropical western Pacific induced by NO and hence the growth of warm sea surface temperature anomalies in WPWP and its eastward propagation. This was followed by lagged SO-induced weakening of southeast trade winds and local warming in the equatorial eastern Pacific. These were conducive to the occurrence of the CE. On the contrary, the transition from SO+ to SO- leading the transition of NO would favor the occurrence of EE type events.     

Influence of positive and negative Indian Ocean Dipoles on ENSO via the Indonesian Throughflow: Results from sensitivity experiments

The role of the Indonesian Throughflow(ITF) in the influence of the Indian Ocean Dipole(IOD) on ENSO is investigated using version 2 of the Parallel Ocean Program(POP2) ocean general circulation model. We demonstrate the results through sensitivity experiments on both positive and negative IOD events from observations and coupled general circulation model simulations. By shutting down the atmospheric bridge while maintaining the tropical oceanic channel, the IOD forcing is shown to influence the ENSO event in the following year, and the role of the ITF is emphasized. During positive IOD events,negative sea surface height anomalies(SSHAs) occur in the eastern Indian Ocean, indicating the existence of upwelling.These upwelling anomalies pass through the Indonesian seas and enter the western tropical Pacific, resulting in cold anomalies there. These cold temperature anomalies further propagate to the eastern equatorial Pacific, and ultimately induce a La Nia-like mode in the following year. In contrast, during negative IOD events, positive SSHAs are established in the eastern Indian Ocean, leading to downwelling anomalies that can also propagate into the subsurface of the western Pacific Ocean and travel further eastward. These downwelling anomalies induce negative ITF transport anomalies, and an El Nio-like mode in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean that persists into the following year. The effects of negative and positive IOD events on ENSO via the ITF are symmetric. Finally, we also estimate the contribution of IOD forcing in explaining the Pacific variability associated with ENSO via ITF.     

Modulation of El Nino-Southern Oscillation by Freshwater Flux and Salinity Variability in the Tropical Pacific

The El Nin o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is modulated by many factors; most previous studies have emphasized the roles of wind stress and heat flux in the tropical Pacific. Freshwater flux (FWF) is another environmental forcing to the ocean; its effect and the related ocean salinity variability in the ENSO region have been of increased interest recently. Currently, accurate quantifications of the FWF roles in the climate remain challenging; the related observations and coupled ocean-atmosphere modeling involve large elements of uncertainty. In this study, we utilized satellite-based data to represent FWF-induced feedback in the tropical Pacific climate system; we then incorporated these data into a hybrid coupled ocean-atmosphere model (HCM) to quantify its effects on ENSO. A new mechanism was revealed by which interannual FWF forcing modulates ENSO in a significant way. As a direct forcing, FWF exerts a significant influence on the ocean through sea surface salinity (SSS) and buoyancy flux (Q B ) in the western-central tropical Pacific. The SSS perturbations directly induced by ENSO-related interannual FWF variability affect the stability and mixing in the upper ocean. At the same time, the ENSO-induced FWF has a compensating effect on heat flux, acting to reduce interannual Q B variability during ENSO cycles. These FWF-induced processes in the ocean tend to modulate the vertical mixing and entrainment in the upper ocean, enhancing cooling during La Nin a and enhancing warming during El Nin o, respectively. The interannual FWF forcing-induced positive feedback acts to enhance ENSO amplitude and lengthen its time scales in the tropical Pacific coupled climate system.     

The Amplitude-Duration Relation of Observed El Nino Events

The authors demonstrate that the El Ni o events in the pre-and post-1976 periods show two ampli-tude-duration relations. One is that the stronger El Ni o events have longer durations, which is robust for the moderate El Ni o events; the other is that the stronger El Ni o events have shorter durations but for strong El Nio events. By estimating the sign and amplitude of the nonlinear dynamical heating (NDH) anomalies, the authors illustrate that the NDH anomalies are negligible for moderate El Nio events but large for strong El Nio events. In particular, the large NDH anomalies for strong El Nio events are positive during the growth and mature phases, which favor warmer El Nio events. During the decay phase, however, the negative NDH anomalies start to arise and become increasingly significant with the evolution of the El Nio events, in which the negative NDH anomalies dampen the sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) and cause the El Nio events to reach the SST normal state earlier. This pattern suggests that the nonlinearity tends to increase the intensities of strong El Nio events and shorten their duration, which, together with the previous results showing a positive correlation between the strength of El Nio events and the significance of the effect of nonlinear advection on the events (especially the suppression of nonlinearity on the SSTA during the decay phase), shows that the strong El Nio events tend to have the amplitude-duration relation of the stronger El Nio events with shorter durations. This result also lends support to the assertion that moderate El Nio events possess the amplitude-duration relation of stronger El Nio events with longer durations.     

Sensitivity Difference in the Extratropical Atmosphere to Two Types of El Nio Events

A comparison of sensitivity in extratropical circulation in the Northern Hemisphere(NH)and Southern Hemisphere(SH)is conducted through observational analyses and diagnostic linear model experiments for two types of El Nio events,the traditional El Nio with the strongest warmth in the eastern tropical Pacific(EP El Nio)and the El Nio Modoki with the strongest warmth in the central tropical Pacific(CP El Nio).It is shown that CP El Nio favors the occurrence of a negative-phase Northern Annular Mode(NAM),while EP El Nio favors that of the Pacific-North American(PNA)pattern.In SH,both EP and CP El Nio induce a negative phase Southern Annular Mode(SAM).However,the former has a greater amplitude,which is consistent with the stronger sea surface temperature(SST)warmth.The difference in the two types of El Nio events in NH may originate from the dependence of heating-induced extratropical response on the location of initial heating,which may be associated with activity of the stationary wave.In SH,the lack of sensitivity to the location of heating can be associated with weaker activity of the stationary wave therein.     

Impact of Subsurface Entrainment on ENSO Prediction: 1997-98 El Nino

Twenty-one-year hindcasts of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Pacific were performed to validate the influence of ocean subsurface entrainment on SST prediction.A new hybrid coupled model was used that considered the entrainment of subsurface temperature anomalies into the sea surface.The results showed that predictions were improved significantly in the new coupled model.The predictive correlation skill increased by about 0.2 at a lead time of 9 months,and the root-mean-square (RMS) errors were decreased by nearly 0.2°C in general.A detailed analysis of the 1997-98 El Nio hindcast showed that the new model was able to predict the onset,peak (both time and amplitude),and decay of the 1997-98 strong El Nio event up to a lead time of one year,factors that are not represented well by many other forecast systems.This implies,in terms of prediction,that subsurface anomalies and their impact on the SST are one of the controlling factors in ENSO cycles.Improving the presentation of such effects in models would increase the forecast skill.     

Connections Between Different Types of El Nio and Southern/Northern Oscillation

It has long been acknowledged that there are two types of El Nio events, i.e., the eastern Pacific El Nio (EE) and the central Pacific El Nio (CE), according to the initial position of the anomalous warm water and its propagation direction. In this paper, the oceanic and atmospheric evolutions and the possible mechanisms of the two types of El Nio events were examined. It is found that all the El Nio events, CE or EE, could be attributed to the joint impacts of the eastward advection of warm water from...     

ECHAM5-Simulated Impacts of Two Types of El Nio on the Winter Precipitation Anomalies in South China

The authors used an atmospheric general circulation model(AGCM) of European Centre Hamburg Model(ECHAM5.4) and investigated the possible impacts of eastern Pacific(EP) and central Pacific(CP) El Nio on the winter precipitation anomalies in South China.A composite analysis suggested much more rainfall during the mature phase of EP El Nio than in the case of CP El Nio,and their corresponding observed wet centers to be located in the southeast coast and the region to the south of the Yangtze River,respectively.Results obtained on the basis of model-sensitive run imply that the modelsimulated rainfall anomalies agree well with the observation,and the magnitude of simulated rainfall anomalies were found to be reduced when the amplitude of sea surface temperature anomaly(SSTA) forcing of EP and CP El Nio was cut down.These results imply that the rainfall anomaly in South China is very sensitive not only to the type of El Nio but also to its intensity.     

A New Approach for Classifying Two Types of El Nio Events

正In recent decades, the typical El Nio events with the warmest SSTs in the tropical eastern Pacific have become less common, and a different of El Nio with the warmest SSTs in the central Pacific, which is flanked on the east and west by cooler SSTs, has become more fre-quent. The more recent type of El Nio was referred to as central Pacific El Nio, warm pool El Nio, or dateline El Nio, or the El Nio Modoki. Central Pacific El Nio links to a different tropical-to-extratropical teleconnection and exerts different impacts on climate, and several classification approaches have been proposed. In this study, a new classification approach is proposed, which is based on the linear combination (sum or difference) of the two leading Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) of tropical Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA), and the typical El Ni o index (TENI) and the central El Nio index (CENI) are able to be derived by projecting the observed SSTA onto these combinations. This classification not only reflects the characteristics of non-orthogonality between the two types of events but also yields one period peaking at approximate two to seven years. In particular, this classification can distin-guish the different impacts of the two types of events on rainfall in the following summer in East China. The typical El Nio events tend to induce intensified rainfall in the Yangtze River valley, whereas the central Pacific El Nio tends to induce intensified rainfall in the Huaihe River valley. Thus, the present approach may be appropriate for studying the impact of different types of El Nio on the East Asian climate.     

Optimal Precursor Perturbations of El Ni?o in the Zebiak-Cane Model for Different Cost Functions

Optimal precursor perturbations of El Ni?o in the Zebiak-Cane model were explored for three different cost functions. For the different characteristics of the eastern-Pacific(EP) El Ni?o and the central-Pacific(CP) El Ni?o, three cost functions were defined as the sea surface temperature anomaly(SSTA) evolutions at prediction time in the whole tropical Pacific, the Ni?o3 area, and the Ni?o4 area. For all three cost functions, there were two optimal precursors that developed into El Ni?o events, called Precursor I and Precursor Ⅱ. For Precursor Ⅰ, the SSTA component consisted of an east-west(positive-negative) dipole spanning the entire tropical Pacific basin and the thermocline depth anomaly pattern exhibited a tendency of deepening for the whole of the equatorial Pacific. Precursor I can develop into an EP-El Ni?o event, with the warmest SSTA occurring in the eastern tropical Pacific or into a mixed El Ni?o event that has features between EP-El Ni?o and CP-El Ni?o events. For Precursor Ⅱ, the thermocline deepened anomalously in the eastern equatorial Pacific and the amplitude of deepening was obviously larger than that of shoaling in the central and western equatorial Pacific. Precursor Ⅱ developed into a mixed El Ni?o event. Both the thermocline depth and wind anomaly played important roles in the development of Precursor Ⅰ and Precursor Ⅱ.