Kingarabian wrote:But what about the warmth in the eastern Nino regions?
I can't consider an El Nino a Modoki one if the waters in the eastern regions are at weak/moderate levels, even if the waters in the CPAC are warmer.
A modoki, as it's author intended, is very simple. You get the walker cell or tropical convection to bubble in the central Pacific preferable near the dateline and sinking air to the east and to the west. 28C is the magic number for convection sustainability. Meaning you need cooler than that to the east and to the west to center the walker cell. That is the intent of it's author and founder. Somewhere down the road somebody(s) decided to expand that and simply label where the warmest waters are relative to the others (but there is no definition or paper for this). If you have 28C across the Pacific it doesn't matter where the warmest is. We get so in depth with SST anomalies, we forget it is real temperatures that drives the system not an artificial anomaly that is based on different climo datasets.
http://www.jamstec.go.jp/frcgc/research/d1/iod/enmodoki_home_s.html.en
