POD-Galerkin reduced-order modeling of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

Reduced-order modeling (ROM) aims to mitigate computational complexity by reducing the size of a high-dimensional state space. In this study, we demonstrate the efficiency, accuracy, and stability of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD)-Galerkin ROM when applied to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation model, which integrates coupled atmosphere, ocean, and sea surface temperature (SST) mechanisms in the equatorial Pacific. While POD identifies the most energetic modes of a system from simulation data, the Galerkin projection maps the governing equations onto these reduced modes to derive a simplified dynamical system. Leveraging the unique coupling properties of the model, we propose a novel approach to formulate a reduced-order model derived from Galerkin projection. Our approach achieves remarkable computational efficiency, requiring only four POD modes. The results provide highly stable and accurate solutions over 95% compared to the high-dimensional full-order model (FOM), highlighting the potential of POD-Galerkin reduction for efficient and accurate climate simulations.