NUMERICAL STUDY ON DOMINATING FACTOR AND KEY AREA OF EL NINO CYCLE FORMATION_*

A coupled model,which is employed to study the dominating factor and key area of El Nino cycle formation,consists of a dynamical ocean model and a statistical atmospheric model.The coupled model with seasonal forcing successfully reproduces the El Nino event cycle which exhibits quasi-regular oscillations with a preferred period of about 4 years.The results show that the heat content(HC) is transported between the eastern and the western tropical Pacific areas.The spatial distribution of HC anomalies for four phases of the whole cycle clearly shows a possible formation mechanism of El Nino.Experiments further suggest that sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific and HC in the central tropical Pacific are the most important factors and the central tropical Pacific is the most important area for determining formation of El Nino cycle.