Tracking El Niño
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- Visualizations by:
- Horace Mitchell and
- Lori Perkins
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- Written by:
- Lacey Young
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- Scientific consulting by:
- George Huffman,
- Robin Kovach, and
- Steven Pawson
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- Produced by:
- Kayvon Sharghi and
- Matthew Radcliff
- View full credits
El Niño is a recurring climate pattern that causes dramatic weather changes on both land and sea. These changes start in the equatorial Pacific ocean with warmer than usual ocean temperatures. In non-El Niño years, equatorial trade winds blow west over the Pacific Ocean and normally carry warm water toward Asia, drawing cooler water up from the deep along South America. But during an El Niño, these winds weaken and occasionally reverse direction. The warm Asia instead remains in the eastern Pacific. The most recent El Niño occurred in 2015-2016. The majority of ocean warming occurred between July 2015 and January 2016. The warming event ended only when cooler waters traveling west just north of the equator, reflected off of Asia and headed back toward the Americas. NASA Goddard's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) combined satellite observations with model data to recreate what happened in 3D. Focused on the top 800 feet (225 meters) of the ocean’s surface, yellow arrows illustrate eastward currents and white arrows are westward currents. The resulting westerlies – winds out of the west – cause eastward currents to pulse. The most intense effects of the 2015-2016 El Niño were seen in the distribution and intensity of precipitation in California and along the East Coast through the winter months. Watch the video to learn more.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Animators
- Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Writer
- Lacey Young (Intern) [Lead]
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Scientists
- George Huffman (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Robin Kovach (SSAI) [Lead]
- Steven Pawson (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
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Producers
- Kayvon Sharghi (USRA) [Lead]
- Matthew Radcliff (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
Related Pages
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ID: 4544 Visualization
2015-2016 El Niño: Daily Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly and Ocean Currents
Read moreThis visualization shows 2015-2016 El Nino through changes in sea surface temperature and ocean currents. Blue regions represent colder temperatures and red regions represent warmer temperatures when compared with normal conditions. Yellow arrows illustrate eastward currents and white arrows are westward currents. || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents__1300_print.jpg (1024x576) [175.5 KB] || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents__1300_searchweb.png (320x180) [97.1 KB] || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents__1300_thm.png (80x40) [6.7 KB] || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents_1080p.mp4 (1920x1080) [159.4 MB] || GMAO_elNino_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_currents_1080p.webm (1920x1080) [163.5 KB] || GMAO_oceanTemperatureAnomaly_withColorbar.mp4 (3840x2160) [166.0 MB] || frames/3840x2160_16x9_30p/with_colorbar/ (3840x2160) [256.0 KB] ||
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ID: 12601 Produced Video
A 3D Look at the 2015 El Niño
Read moreScientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have combined ocean measurements with cutting-edge supercomputer simulations to analyze the 2015-2016 El Niño in three dimensions. This visualization looks at the top 225 meters of the ocean, showing warmer than normal water in red, colder than normal water in blue. In the second half, current information is included, with east-flowing currents in yellow and west-flowing currents in white.Music: Bourrée from Handel's Water MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || 12601-El-Nino-3D-print.jpg (3840x2160) [2.7 MB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-print_searchweb.png (320x180) [93.3 KB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-print_thm.png (80x40) [7.1 KB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-UHD.mp4 (3840x2160) [381.6 MB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-captions.en_US.srt [1.7 KB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-captions.en_US.vtt [1.7 KB] || 12601-El-Nino-3D-UHD.webm (3840x2160) [24.9 MB] ||
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