The 1986-1989 ENSO cycle over the western Pacific Ocean

Australian Bureau of Meteorology real-time tropical analyses provide daily objective grid-point analyses of the wind field in the tropical region to the north of Australia without the constraints of a forecast model first-guess field or an initialisation procedure. Seasonal means and anomalies from these analyses are used to describe the evolution of the tropical circulation during the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) warm event of 1986-1987 and the cold event of l988-1989.The links between circulation anomalies over the western Pacific and over Australia during the ENSO cycle are also described. The marked similarities between the opposite sign anomalies in the warm and cold phases of the ENSO cycle are noted, particularly for the horizontal patterns of wind field and divergence anomalies.