Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly Plot from 1950 to 2015
Visualizations by
Greg Shirah
Released on December 14, 2015
Sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) from NOAA are used to determine when El Nino and La Nina conditions have occurred. This visualization shows a plot over time of SSTAs over a region of the Pacific Ocean called "Oceanic Nino Index Region 3.4". An El Nino happens when the SSTA is greater than 0.5 degrees C (shown in red); a La Nina happens when SSTA is less than -0.5 degrees C (shown in blue).
Over this period, several El Nino events occurred including: 1957-1958, 1972-1973, 1982-1983, and 1997-1998.
GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation:
Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0