Earth  ID: 3043

Indecisive El Niño Exhibits 'Split Personality'

Visualizations by Greg Shirah Released on November 1, 2004
The central equatorial Pacific Ocean warmed by about one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) between June and August 2004, which can indicate development of a weak to moderate El Niño. Yet in other locations, important signals have been absent, suggesting the climate pattern may be of two minds. NASA satellites show warm water anomalies concentrated in the central Pacific Ocean in August. By September, the anomalies are weaker.
The SeaWinds instrument on NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat) satellite has shown stronger than normal trade winds for this time of year on the eastern side of the Pacific basin. Since the 1997 to 1998 El Niño, these trade winds have exhibited a kind of 'split personality' condition during times when the central equatorial Pacific warmed.
Download Options
Sea surface temperature anomaly in the eastern Pacific for June-October 2004
Download Options
Sea surface temperature anomaly for 2004 Aug 5
Download Options
Sea surface temperature anomaly for 2004 Aug 16
Download Options
Sea surface temperature anomaly for 2004 June 01
Download Options
Sea surface temperature anomaly for 2004 Oct 03
Download Options
Sea surface temperature anomaly for 2004 Sep 01
Download Options
Sea surface wind anomaly for August 2004

Visualization Credits

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Jesse Allen (Raytheon): Animator
David Adamec (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3043

Data Used:
Aqua/AMSR-E/Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly
2004/06/01 - 2004/10/03
view all stories where this data set is used
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Dates of Data Used:
2004/06/01 - 2004/10/03

Keywords:
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Oceans >> Ocean Temperature >> Sea Surface Temperature
SVS >> For Educators
SVS >> Ocean-Atmosphere-Land Interactions
SVS >> Earth Science >> Weather
SVS >> Earth Science >> El Nino
SVS >> Oceans >> Pacific >> Temperatures
SVS >> Climate Patterns
NASA Science >> Earth

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