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2021-06-17

Which of the following occurs during an El Nino?

Which of the following occurs during an El Nino?

During an El Niño event, the surface waters in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become significantly warmer than usual. It also reduces the upwelling of cooler, nutrient-rich waters from the deep—shutting down or reversing ocean currents along the equator and along the west coast of South and Central America.

What is the El Nino phenomenon?

El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. El Nino is the “warm phase” of a larger phenomenon called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). El Niño was recognized by fishers off the coast of Peru as the appearance of unusually warm water.

How often is El Nino?

every two to seven years

How are El Nino events detected?

In the tropical Pacific Ocean, El Niño is detected by many methods, including satellites, moored buoys, drifting buoys, sea level analysis, and expendable buoys.

Can El Niño be predicted?

Despite major advancements, scientists cannot predict events more than 1 year away, even though the physical precursors to El Niño and La Niña, such as shifting ocean temperatures, may occur more than a year in advance. Many state-of-the-art forecasting models use mathematical equations to power their predictions.

How does El Nino affect hurricanes?

If El Niño has a strong presence, or makes Pacific waters warmer than usual, it increases the amount of “wind shear” across the the Atlantic basin. Wind shear is bad for hurricanes, and tropical storm production. It disrupts necessary conditions for tropical storms to form.

How does El Nino work?

How Does El Niño Work? In normal years, the winds tend to blow from east to west across the waters of the tropical Pacific. During El Niño years, the winds weaken, causing the upwelling of deep water to cease. The consequent warming of the ocean surface further weakens the winds and strengthens El Niño.

What is El Nino and how does it form?

El Niño occurs when warm water builds up along the equator in the eastern Pacific. The warm ocean surface warms the atmosphere, which allows moisture-rich air to rise and develop into rainstorms. The clearest example of El Niño in this series of images is 1997.

Where does it get drier during an El Niño?

Along the equatorial Pacific, conditions tend to warmer and wetter. Parts of southern Africa tend to be drier and warmer along with southeast Asia. During the summer, El Nino causes southeast Asia to be dry with wetter conditions in the middle of the Pacific.