El Niño-Southern Oscillation
hideEl Niño-Southern Oscillation (abbrieviated as ENSO and commonly called simply El Niño), is an intensification of monthly or seasonal fluctuations in the air pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin, Australia caused by warming of surface waters of the tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean that occurs every three to eight years. The name is from the Spanish for "the little boy", refers to the Christ child, because the phenomenon is usually noticed around Christmas in the Pacific near South America. A period of cooling in the tropical Pacific is the opposite extreme in the natural ENSO cycle and is called La Niña.
The mechanisms that sustain the El Niño - La Nina cycle remain a matter of research, but El Nino is associated with disruption of Pacific trade winds and a stronger than usual so-called Madden-Julian oscillation, which is the frequent and regularly occurring eastward progression of tropical rainfall over the Pacific.
El Niño is associated with floods, droughts and is linked to other weather disturbances in many locations around the world. El Niño's effects in the Atlantic Ocean lag behind those in the Pacific by 12 to 18 months. Developing countries dependent upon agricultural and fishing are especially affected. But El Niño's effects on weather vary with each event, and ENSO's intensity or frequency may change as a result of global warming. Research suggests that treating ocean warming which occurs in the eastern tropical Pacific separately from that of the central tropical Pacific may help explain some of these variations.
For more information about El Niño-Southern Oscillation, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with el nino
Past regional cold and warm periods linked to natural climate drivers
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
17 hours ago |
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Intervals of regional warmth and cold in the past are linked to the El Niño phenomenon and the so-called "North Atlantic Oscillation" in the Northern hemisphere's jet stream, according to a team of climate scientists. These ...
El Nino intensifies Latin America drought
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 20, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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From a devastating food crisis in Guatemala to water cuts in Venezuela, El Nino has compounded drought damage across Latin America this year.
El Nino Could Play A Role In Colorado's Winter Weather, Scientist Says
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 17, 2009 |
2 / 5 (1) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- El Nino, a warming event of the tropical Pacific Ocean that affects weather patterns in the United States and elsewhere, has strengthened in recent months and already appears to have influenced Colorado's ...
El Nino Picking Up Steam
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 13, 2009 |
4 / 5 (6) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The latest image from the U.S./French Jason-2 satellite finds a strong wave of warm water heading toward the Americas, fueling El Nino.
Pacific El Nino equals Atlantic hurricane calm: experts
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 18, 2009 |
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The Pacific's El Nino ocean-warming phenomenon has resulted in an especially calm Atlantic hurricane season -- a welcome respite for Caribbean and southeastern US residents still smarting from a 2008 pounding.
Winter forecast: Warmer West, North; cooler South
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 15, 2009 |
4 / 5 (5) |
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(AP) -- The Midwest and Northern United States are likely to get a warmer winter, while the Southeast can expect just the opposite: cooler and wetter conditions.
Panama butterfly migrations linked to El Nino, climate change
Oct 05, 2009 |
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A high-speed chase across the Panama Canal in a Boston Whaler may sound like the beginning of another James Bond film—but the protagonist of this story brandishes a butterfly net and studies the effects of ...
Study provides new insights into marine ecosystems and fisheries production
Sep 30, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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NOAA and Norwegian researchers recently completed a comparative analysis of marine ecosystems in the North Atlantic and North Pacific to see what factors support fisheries production, leading to new insights that could improve ...
Floundering El Ninos Make for Fickle Forecasts
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 29, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (7) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Since May 2009, the tropical Pacific Ocean has switched from a cool pattern of ocean circulation known as La Niña to her warmer sibling, El Niño. This cyclical warming of the ocean waters ...
Global warming may dent El Nino's protective shield from Atlantic hurricanes, increase droughts
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- El Niño, the periodic eastern Pacific phenomenon credited with shielding the United States and Caribbean from severe hurricane seasons, may be overshadowed by its brother in the central Pacific ...
Researcher shows possible link between 1918 El Nino and flu pandemic
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 14, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (4) |
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Research conducted at Texas A&M University casts doubts on the notion that El Niño has been getting stronger because of global warming and raises interesting questions about the relationship between El Niño and a severe flu ...
'Old Farmer's Almanac' still spots cold in Web age
Sep 10, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Doris Smith Mills often comes across past editions of the "Old Farmer's Almanac" lying around her family's 110-year-old Westport, Mass., farm. She believes previous Smiths read it for entertainment ...
In hot water: World sets ocean temperature record (Update)
Aug 20, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Steve Kramer spent an hour and a half swimming in the ocean this week - in Maine.
Harbingers of increased Atlantic hurricane activity identified
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 12, 2009 |
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Reconstructions of past hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean indicate that the most active hurricane period in the past was during the "Medieval Climate Anomaly" about a thousand years ago when climate ...
Experts predict quieter Atlantic hurricane season
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 04, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (4) |
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Weather experts on Wednesday reduced the number of projected hurricanes in the north Atlantic this season to four, two of them major hurricanes with winds above 178 kilometers (111 miles) per hour.
