Application of deep learning to understanding ENSO dynamics

Abstract Many deep learning technologies have been applied to the Earth sciences. Nonetheless, the difficulty in interpreting deep learning results still prevents their applications to studies on climate dynamics. Here, we applied a convolutional neural network to understand El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) dynamics from long-term climate model simulations. The deep learning algorithm successfully predicted ENSO events with a high correlation skill (∼0.82) for a 9-month lead. For interpreting deep learning results beyond the prediction, we present a “contribution map” to estimate how much the grid box and variable contribute to the output and “contribution sensitivity” to estimate how much the output variable is changed to the small perturbation of the input variables. The contribution map and sensitivity are calculated by modifying the input variables to the pre-trained deep learning, which is quite similar to the occlusion sensitivity. Based on the two methods, we identified three precursors of ENSO and investigated their physical processes with El Niño and La Niña development. In particular, it is suggested here that the roles of each precursor are asymmetric between El Niño and La Niña. Our results suggest that the contribution map and sensitivity are simple approaches but can be a powerful tool in understanding ENSO dynamics and they might be also applied to other climate phenomena.