EnsoSstSkew
Computes the skewness (sign of the skewness means that the anomalies of the same sign reach larger values) of central equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA; horizontal Niño3.4 average)
TropFlux 1979-2018 (main)
20CRv2 1871-2012, ERA-Interim 1979-2018, ERSSTv5 1854-2018, HadISST 1870-2018, NCEP2 1979-2018
Niño3.4
None
- seasonal cycle removed
- detrending (if applicable)
- spatial average
- skewness of Niño3.4 SSTA
- abs((model-ref)/ref)*100
monthly
% of error
sea surface temperature (SST)
The first level shows the diagnostic used to compute the metric and highlight the difference between the model and the reference.
Figure 1: skewness of sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) in the central equatorial Pacific (Niño3.4 averaged), showing the fact that positive SSTA should reach larger values than negative SSTA (usually close to 0). The black and blue markers show respectively the reference and the model. The metric derived is the absolute value of the relative difference: abs((model-ref)/ref)*100.
The second level shows the zonal structure of the ENSO skewness: the skewness of the anomalies along the equator in the Pacific.
Figure 2: zonal structure of the skewness of the sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) in the equatorial Pacific(5°S-5°N average), showing usually a skewness close to zero in the central-eastern equatorial Pacific. The black and blue curves show respectively the reference and the model.
The third level shows the broader picture to better understand the spatial pattern of ENSO skewness: the map of the skewness of anomalies in the equatorial Pacific.
Figure 3: spatial structure of the skewness of sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) in the equatorial Pacific, showing usually a too close to zero. The left and right maps show respectively the reference and the model.