The ENSO Conceptual Models Working Group of PRP kicked off by its first telecon organised in two sessions on June 29 and 30 respectively to accommodate the participants located in different time zones. All WG members but two attended the telecon sessions.

The telecon started with an overview of the WG by Jerome Vialard, lead of the WG, who reviewed the motivation and development of the ENSO Conceptual Model WG. The WG  was first proposed in 2018 during the Pacific Region Panel meeting held  in conjunction with the IV International ENSO Conference in Guayaquil, and officially started in mid-May 2020. The WG includes some members of the CLIVAR Pacific Region Panel (PRP), other ENSO experts and early career scientists (ECS). The Terms of Reference for the WG were revisited by the participants as well. The discussion focused on the ‘definition of ENSO conceptual models’ and the ‘fundamental properties of ENSO that should be accounted for by conceptual models’.

It was agreed that the ENSO Conceptual Model WG will have bi-monthly telecons to review the progress, and the next telecon will be organised in September 2020. The initial topics for next telecon include:

• Essential ENSO properties and corresponding metrics;
• Review of ENSO conceptual models + Original work with recharged oscillation and phase locking;
• Literature review: a reference list will be compiled prior to the next telecon
• Finalised description on ‘what an ENSO conceptual model should be?’