From Table 1 and Fig. 1, we can see that most of the El Niño events persist for one year, a few of them last for two years, and no one for three years. In contrast, most La Niña events last for two years, and some of them persist for one year or three years. Numerically (Fig. 2, Table 1), 75% of El Niño events persist for one year, 25% for two years, while for La Niña events, 31% of them last for one year, 54% of them two years, and 15% of them three years. Here, 2020/22 La Niña is classified as a double-year La Niña, nevertheless, the tropical Pacific is still in a La Niña condition until May 2022, thus, 2020/22 La Niña may evolve into a triple-year La Niña. Such evolution differences between El Niño and La Niña are the well-known duration asymmetry of ENSO: El Niño events mostly persist for one year, while La Niña events favor to last for multiple years (Kessler 2002; Ohba and Ueda 2009; Okumura and Deser 2010; Okumura et al. 2011; Hu et al. 2014).
For single-year El Niños and based on the relative Niño3.4 index, the strengths vary from weak to extremely strong (Fig. 3a), and their average declines to below average in the spring of the decay year. While for double-year El Niños (Fig. 3b), the strengths of the two peaks in their averages are comparable, and all the first-year peaks of the relative Niño3.4index in each El Niño don’t exceed 2oC (extreme El Niño). That is in contrast to La Niña. Hu et al. (2014) argued that a strong La Niña is favorable to be followed by a second-year La Niña, which, on average, is weaker than the first-year La Niña.
To identify the flavor of El Niño, i.e., central Pacific (CP) or eastern Pacific (EP) events, the difference between the Niño3 and Niño4 indices (Niño3 minus Niño4) is displayed (Kao and Yu 2009). When the difference is positive (negative), it is called EP (CP) El Niño. From Fig. 4, we can see both positive and negative differences present in the single-year and double-year El Niños, meaning that both CP and EP type El Niños occur in the single-year and double-year El Niños.
As a key indicator of the ENSO phase turnaround (Jin 1997; Hu et al. 2017), the WWV index shows apparent differences between the averages of the single-year and double-year El Niños. The WWV index decreases quickly since the peak of single-year El Niño and becomes negative since January of the decay year (Fig. 5a), consisting with the recharge and discharge oscillator paradigm (Jin 1997). While, compared with the single-year El Niños (Fig. 5a), for the double-year El Niños (Fig. 5d), their averaged WWV is larger in the peak, declines much slower, and reaches negative until January(2), suggesting that a persistently recharged heat condition of the equatorial Pacific is a precondition for the emergence of a second-year El Niño.
In addition to the impact of low-frequency variation and long-term trend on the ENSO (Yeo et al. 2016; Li et al. 2019), Li et al. (2022b) recently noted that La Niña decay in the boreal spring and early summer is mainly controlled by the intraseasonal-interseasonal variation. From Fig. 5b, c, e, and f, we can also see that both the intraseasonal-interseasonal and interannual components of the WWV index have appreciable differences in the averages between the single-year and double-year El Niños. For the single-year El Niño average (Fig. 5b, c), the intraseasonal-interseasonal and interannual components of the WWV index have an in-phase decline (discharging) since the decay of the El Niños, leading to the enhanced discharging of the equatorial Pacific (Fig. 5a). While, for the double-year El Niño average, there is a slightly recharging tendency after the decay of the first-year El Niños for the intraseasonal-interseasonal component (Fig. 5e). For the interannual component, compared with the single-year El Niños (Fig. 5c), the decrease of the WWV index in the double-year El Niños (Fig. 5f) is slower and the WWV index reaches negative in the late spring and early summer of year(1). As a result, the total WWV index decays slower and the equatorial Pacific is in the recharged phase until July of year(1) (Fig. 5d), unfavorable for the phase transition.
The single-year and double-year El Niños may have different impacts on the global climate. As an example, Fig. 6 shows the composites of SST (shading over oceans), land precipitation (shading over land), and surface pressure (contours) anomalies in the winter of the mature phase of single-year El Niños (represented by S_D(0)JF(1)), and in the winter of the mature phase of the 1st and 2nd years of the double-year El Niños (represented by D_ D(0)JF(1) and D_D(1)JF(2), respectively). Although the broad-scale patterns are similar for the composites (Fig. 6a-c), there are a lot of detailed differences in their amplitudes and regional distributions. For example, the SST anomalies in the eastern tropical Pacific are more significant in S_D(0)JF(1) (Fig. 6a) than in D_ D(0)JF(1) (Fig. 6b) and D_D(1)JF(2) (Fig. 6c), and it is the opposite in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. In the Indian Ocean, the SST anomalies are more significant in S_D(0)JF(1) (Fig. 6a) and D_D(1)JF(2) (Fig. 6c) than in D_ D(0)JF(1) (Fig. 6b) The surface pressure anomalies also display appreciable differences among the three composites in the regions including the high-latitudes of Eurasia, the North Pacific Ocean, and the North Atlantic Ocean. For the land precipitation anomaly composites in southeastern China, it is above normal in S_D(0)JF(1) and D_D(1)JF(2), and below normal in D_ D(0)JF(1). In the central North America, the precipitation is significantly wet in S_D(0)JF(1) and D_ D(0)JF(1), and near average in D_D(1)JF(2).