| The variability in the equatorial Tropical Pacific is
characterized by sea-surface temperature anomalies
and associated changes in the atmospheric circulation.
Through an enormous monitoring effort over the
last decades, the relevant time scales and spatial patterns are fairly
well-documented. In the meantime, a hierarchy of models has
been developed to understand the physics of this phenomenon
and to make predictions of future variability. In this short review,
I try to summarize theories and mechanisms about variability
in such a way that these are accessible to a diverse group of
researchers, such as that present in
Guayaquil (in May 2005) at the First International Alexander
Von Humboldt Conference "The El Niño Phenomenon
and its Global Impact". |