The claim that large-scale modes of climate variability like NAM, SAM, and ENSO exist in the ocean is refuted by the scientific literature, which establishes these phenomena as atmospheric circulation patterns and coupled ocean-atmosphere or climate indices rather than oceanic modes.
The provided papers uniformly describe the Northern Annular Mode (NAM), Southern Annular Mode (SAM), and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) as patterns of atmospheric circulation variability, meteorological teleconnections, or coupled climate phenomena involving the atmosphere. While ENSO involves sea surface temperatures, these modes are primarily atmospheric or coupled climate variability patterns rather than features existing solely or fundamentally 'in the ocean' in the sense implied. Therefore, the claim is refuted by standard meteorological and climatological definitions provided in the literature.