Multiyear ENSO dynamics as revealed in observations, CMIP6 models, and linear theory

El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events occasionally recur one after the other in the same polarity, called multiyear ENSO. However, the dynamical processes are not well understood. This study aims to elucidate the unified mechanisms of multiyear ENSO using observations, CMIP6 models, and the theoretical linear recharge oscillator (RO) model. We found that multiyear El Niño and La Niña events are roughly symmetric except in some cases. The composite multiyear ENSO reveals that anomalous ocean heat content (OHC) in the equatorial Pacific persists beyond the first peak, stimulating another event. This prolonged OHC anomaly is caused by meridional Ekman heat transport counteracting geostrophic transport induced recharge–discharge process that otherwise acts to change the OHC anomaly. A meridionally wide pattern of sea surface temperature observed during multiyear event is responsible for the Ekman heat transport. CMIP6 multi-model ensemble shows a significant correlation between the ENSO meridional width and the occurrence ratio of multiyear ENSO. A multiyear ENSO-like oscillation was simulated using the linear RO model that incorporates a seasonally varying Bjerknes growth rate and a weak recharge efficiency representing the effect of Ekman transport. When the recharge efficiency parameter was estimated using reanalysis data based on geostrophic transport alone, a multiyear ENSO rarely occurred, confirming the importance of Ekman transport in retarding the recharge–discharge process.