Indices of El Nino and El Nino Modoki: An improved El Nino Modoki index

In recent years, El Nino Modoki (pseudo-El Nino) has been distinguished as a unique large-scale ocean warming phenomenon happening in the central tropical Pacific that is quite different from the traditional El Nino. Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis is used to successfully separate El Nino and El Nino Modoki. The abilities of the NINO3 index, NINO3.4 index, NINO1+2 index and NINO4 index in characterizing the El Nino are explored in detail. It is suggested that the NINO3 index is comparatively optimal to monitor the El Nino among the four NINO indices, since other NINO indices either cannot well distinguish El Nino and El Nino Modoki signals or are easily disturbed by El Nino Modoki signals. Further, an improved El Nino Modoki index (IEMI) is introduced to better represent the El Nino Modoki that is captured by the second leading EOF mode of monthly tropical Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA). The IEMI is an improvement of the El Nino Modoki index (EMI) through adjusting the inappropriate weight coefficients of the three boxes of EMI, and it effectively overcomes the lack of EMI in monitoring the two historical El Nino Modoki events and also avoids the possible risk of EMI in excluding the interference of El Nino signal, indicating the realistic and potential advantages.