For this question you have to able to look this up or be.."smart".,,so does anyone know anything about El Nino

Question

questions:

what controls most of the climate on earth?

how often does El Nino happen?

how does El Nino form?

what doe scientist do to study El nino?

how many buoys are used to study El Nino

how do peruvian fishers know when El Nino has arrived?

how does Al Nino affest weather on the land of peru?

how do we know when El Nino is startying?

how do scientist make an El NIno forecast?

what happens to the temerature of surface water in the eastern pacific ocean during El Nino?

where do heavy rains occur as a result of El Nino?

where do droughts occur as a reasult of El Nino?

why do certain areas get more rain fall during El Nino?

why does El Nino affect weather and climate in the U.S?

how is california affected by El Nino?

what is a positive benefit of El Nino in the Atlantic ocean?

how does El Nino affect the weather in the northern U.S?

if you can answer all of these you are a true "life saver" but if you want you can answer as less as you want!!!!! [= OMG thank you[=!!

Answer 1

This sounds like homework.  I will give you plenty of good and informational links to help you.  

http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/

El Niño/La Niña Home Page / FAQ’s

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/an...

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/nino...

El Nino & Climate Change

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/html/glo...

http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/el-n...

http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/forecast.html

Answer 2

To answer these questions you don't have to be "smart", you simply have to have a basic knowledge of environmental sciences and meteorology.......

Climate is the average weather over many years. Climates around the planet will change if the things that control them change. To change global climate, either there is a change in the amount of heat that gets to the planet or the amount of heat that leaves the planet. For instance, warming climates are either because more heat is let into the Earth or because less heat is let out of the atmosphere.

The heat comes from the Sun. Sunlight travels through Earth’s atmosphere, heating up the land and oceans. The Sun affects climate when the amount of solar energy let into the system changes. Changes in Earth’s orbit over thousands of years and changes in the Sun’s intensity affect the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth.

Heat leaves the Earth when the planet surface radiates heat away. Greenhouse gases in our atmosphere allow the lower atmosphere to absorb heat that is radiated from the Earth’s surface, trapping heat within the Earth system. Without any greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world. However, the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is on the rise, causing temperature to climb.

Living things affect climate by altering the amount of sunlight that is absorbed at the Earth surface and the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Some organisms and processes help global cooling while others help global warming depending on their role in the carbon cycle.

There are many different factors that make climate more complicated. There are probably some complications that scientists have not yet identified. One complicating factor is how clouds affect climate change. Some types of clouds may help warming, while others may help cooling.

El Nino forms every three to seven years in the Eastern Pacific Ocean....



El Niño results from weakening easterly trade winds .The easterly trade winds are driven by a surface pressure pattern of higher pressure in the eastern Pacific and lower pressure in the west. When this pressure gradient weakens, so do the trade winds. The weakened trade winds allow warmer water from the western Pacific to surge eastward, so the sea level flattens out. This leads to a build up of warm surface water and a sinking of the thermocline in the eastern Pacific. The deeper thermocline limits the amount of nutrient-rich deep water tapped by upwelling processes. These nutrients are vital for sustaining the large fish populations normally found in the region and any reduction in the supply of nutrients means a reduction in the fish population. Convective clouds and heavy rains are fueled by increased buoyancy of the lower atmosphere resulting from heating by the warmer waters below. As the warmer water shifts eastward, so do the clouds and thunderstorms associated with it, resulting in dry conditions in Indonesia and Australia while more flood-like conditions exist in Peru and Ecuador. El Niño causes all sorts of unusual weather, sometimes bringing rain to coastal deserts of South America which never see rain during non-El Niño years. The flooding results in swarming mosquitoes and the spread of disease. The air-sea interaction that occur during an El Niño event feed off of each other. As the pressure falls in the east and rises in the west, the surface pressure gradient is reduced and the trade winds weaken. This allows more warm surface water to flow eastward, which brings with it more rain, which leads to a further decrease of pressure in the east because the latent heat of condensation warms the air...and the cycle continues.

There are several means used for El Nino detection, study and evaluation; satellites, moored ATLAS and PROTEUS buoys, drifting buoys, sea level analysis, and XBT's. Since El Nino influences global weather patterns and affects human lives and ecosystems, prediction of an El Nino event is becoming increasingly important. For short term prediction (up to 1 year) of climate variations, current observations in the Tropical Pacific are vital. Numerical models are used in many places for El Nino prediction and research.

Given that numerical models predicting El Nino must do so months in advance, they are not as reliable as those used in predicting the weather, which forecast only days in advance. They have, however, progressed to the point where they can reproduce the characteristics of a typical El Nino event.

There are two different types of buoys used to study El Nino.... I have listed them above, and there is no set number of buoys used at a given time.....it depends on available resources.

It is VERY apparent in Peru that Nino has arrived, they major one, a dead given, is the swarms of dead fish littering the water and beaches....

Possible impacts include: a shifting of the jet stream, storm tracks and monsoons, producing unseasonable weather over many regions of the globe. During the El Nino event of 1982-1983 (here is a link for more info if you need it), some of the abnormal weather patterns observed included: Drought in Southern Africa, Southern India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Southern Peru, Western Bolivia, Mexico, Central America Heavy rain and flooding in Bolivia, Ecuador, Northern Peru, Cuba, U.S. Gulf States Hurricanes in Tahiti, Hawaii

Forecasts are presented in terms of possible conditions for South America:

(1) near normal conditions,

(2) a weak El Nino with a slightly wetter than normal growing season,

(3) a full blown El Nino with flooding,

(4) cooler than normal waters offshore, with higher than normal chance of drought in South America.

Once the forecast is issued, management of agriculture, water supplies, fisheries, and other resources can be modified.

During El Nino the water becomes warmer....

Droughts are common in Southern Africa, Southern India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, Southern Peru, Western Bolivia, Mexico, and Central America during El Nino.

During an El Nino year, tropical rains usually centered over Indonesia shift eastward. This effects weather and climate ALL OVER the world, including the U.S. California in particular can expect extra rains during an El Nino Year.

The upside to El Nino is Updwelling…….

Upwelling  is the transport of deeper water to shallow levels

One oceanic process altered during an El Nino year is upwelling, which is the rising of deeper colder water to shallower depths. The diagram below shows how upwelling occurs along the coast of Peru. Because of the frictional stresses that exist between ocean layers, surface water is transported at a 90 degree angle to the left of the winds in the southern hemisphere, 90 degrees to the right of the winds in the northern hemisphere. This is why winds blowing northward parallel to the coastline of Peru "drag" surface water westward away from shore. Nutrient-rich water rises from deeper levels to replace the surface water that has drifted away and these nutrients are responsible for supporting the large fish population commonly found in these areas. The effectiveness of upwelling and its ability to support abundant sea life is greatly dependent upon the depth of the thermocline. The thermocline is the transition layer between the mixed layer at the surface and the deep water layer. The definitions of these layers are based on temperature. The mixed layer is near the surface where the temperature is roughly that of surface water. In the thermocline, the temperature decreases rapidly from the mixed layer temperature to the much colder deep water temperature. The mixed layer and the deep water layer are relatively uniform in temperature, while the thermocline represents the transition zone between the two.

A deeper thermocline (often observed during El Nino years) limits the amount of nutrients brought to shallower depths by upwelling processes, greatly impacting the year's fish crop.

I truly enjoyed doing your homework today....

Hope it helped you out!....