unique title for El Niño
Answer:
- El Niño
El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
- El Niño Temperatures
El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern. La Niña is its cool counterpart. As this chart shows, El Niño events occur irregularly at two- to seven-year intervals.
- Thermocline
Warm surface waters associated with El Niño events can supress the thermocline, the level of ocean depth that separates warm surface water from the colder water below. The strong El Niño events of 1982-1983 and 1987-1988 are visible in the graphic above.
- Peruvian Upwelling
Upwelling is the natural process which brings cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface. A huge upwelling regularly occurs off the coast of Peru, which enjoys a large fishing industry as a result.
- Flood in Chile
El Niño also produces widespread and sometimes severe changes in the atmosphere. Convection above warmer surface waters bring increased precipitation. Rainfall increases drastically on the South American coast (here in Chile), contributing to coastal flooding and erosion.
- Drought in Australia
As El Niño brings rain to South America, it brings droughts to Indonesia and Australia. These droughts threaten the region’s water supplies, impacting health, hygiene, industry, and agriculture.
- Montana Winter
While El Niño brings unusually warm weather to the West Coast, other parts of North American may endure longer, colder, and wetter winters.
- Typhoon in Taiwan
El Niño events can also impact the western Pacific Ocean, normally in an increased number and severity of cyclones. Typhoon Winnie, above, hit Taiwan and China during a powerful El Niño event in 1997. Typhoon Winnie killed more than 200 people and caused more than 1 billion dollars in damages.
- NOAA Buoy
Scientists, governments, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) collect data about El Niño using a number of technologies. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), for instance, operates a network of scientific buoys like this one.
- Buoy Diagram
These buoys measure ocean and air temperatures, currents, winds, and humidity, and are located at about 70 locations in the southern Pacific Ocean, from the Galapagos Islands to Australia.
