A Physics-Informed Auto-Learning Framework for Developing Stochastic Conceptual Models for ENSO Diversity

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Zhang, Yinling, Chen, Nan, Vialard, Jerome, Fang, Xianghui
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Zhang, Yinling
Chen, Nan
Vialard, Jerome
Fang, Xianghui
author_facet Zhang, Yinling
Chen, Nan
Vialard, Jerome
Fang, Xianghui
contents Understanding ENSO dynamics has tremendously improved over the past decades. However, one aspect still poorly understood or represented in conceptual models is the ENSO diversity in spatial pattern, peak intensity, and temporal evolution. In this paper, a physics-informed auto-learning framework is developed to derive ENSO stochastic conceptual models with varying degrees of freedom. The framework is computationally efficient and easy to apply. Once the state vector of the target model is set, causal inference is exploited to build the right-hand side of the equations based on a mathematical function library. Fundamentally different from standard nonlinear regression, the auto-learning framework provides a parsimonious model by retaining only terms that improve the dynamical consistency with observations. It can also identify crucial latent variables and provide physical explanations. Exploiting a realistic six-dimensional reference recharge oscillator-based ENSO model, a hierarchy of three- to six-dimensional models is derived using the auto-learning framework and is systematically validated by a unified set of validation criteria assessing the dynamical and statistical features of the ENSO diversity. It is shown that the minimum model characterizing ENSO diversity is four-dimensional, with three interannual variables describing the western Pacific thermocline depth, the eastern and central Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs), and one intraseasonal variable for westerly wind events. Without the intraseasonal variable, the resulting three-dimensional model underestimates extreme events and is too regular. The limited number of weak nonlinearities in the model are essential in reproducing the observed extreme El Niños and nonlinear relationship between the eastern and western Pacific SSTs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_04585
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Physics-Informed Auto-Learning Framework for Developing Stochastic Conceptual Models for ENSO Diversity
Zhang, Yinling
Chen, Nan
Vialard, Jerome
Fang, Xianghui
Dynamical Systems
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Understanding ENSO dynamics has tremendously improved over the past decades. However, one aspect still poorly understood or represented in conceptual models is the ENSO diversity in spatial pattern, peak intensity, and temporal evolution. In this paper, a physics-informed auto-learning framework is developed to derive ENSO stochastic conceptual models with varying degrees of freedom. The framework is computationally efficient and easy to apply. Once the state vector of the target model is set, causal inference is exploited to build the right-hand side of the equations based on a mathematical function library. Fundamentally different from standard nonlinear regression, the auto-learning framework provides a parsimonious model by retaining only terms that improve the dynamical consistency with observations. It can also identify crucial latent variables and provide physical explanations. Exploiting a realistic six-dimensional reference recharge oscillator-based ENSO model, a hierarchy of three- to six-dimensional models is derived using the auto-learning framework and is systematically validated by a unified set of validation criteria assessing the dynamical and statistical features of the ENSO diversity. It is shown that the minimum model characterizing ENSO diversity is four-dimensional, with three interannual variables describing the western Pacific thermocline depth, the eastern and central Pacific sea surface temperatures (SSTs), and one intraseasonal variable for westerly wind events. Without the intraseasonal variable, the resulting three-dimensional model underestimates extreme events and is too regular. The limited number of weak nonlinearities in the model are essential in reproducing the observed extreme El Niños and nonlinear relationship between the eastern and western Pacific SSTs.
title A Physics-Informed Auto-Learning Framework for Developing Stochastic Conceptual Models for ENSO Diversity
topic Dynamical Systems
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.04585