Statistics of Stochastic Entropy for Recorded Transitions between ENSO States

We analyze the transitions between established phases of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) by surveying the daily data of the southern oscillation index from an entropic viewpoint using the framework of stochastic statistical physics. We evaluate the variation of entropy produced due to each recorded path of that index during each transition as well as taking only into consideration the beginning and the end of the change between phases and verified both integral fluctuation relations. The statistical results show that these entropy variations have not been extreme entropic events; only the transition between the strong 1999-2000 La Niña to the moderate 2002-2003 El Niño is at the edge of being so. With that, the present work opens a long and winding avenue of research over the application of stochastic statistical physics to climate dynamics.