METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATE: What's Happening to El Nino??

▪ 1996

      Most of the year-to-year variability in climate in the tropics—and much of it worldwide—is related through a phenomenon called El Niño. The term originally applied to an annual warm ocean current that runs along the coast of Peru about Christmastime; in Spanish, El Niño refers to the Christ child. Today, however, it designates a much larger anomalous ocean warming that stretches westward to the international date line. It is this phenomenon that is linked with the unusual global climate patterns that occur every few years. El Niño is not solely oceanic but couples intimately with an atmospheric component termed the Southern Oscillation. Scientists often refer to the two together as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO.

      ENSO is a natural phenomenon that appears to have been going on for millennia. Conditions in the tropical Pacific actually are seldom average but, instead, fluctuate irregularly between the warm El Niño phase and a cooling phase, dubbed La Niña. A complete ENSO cycle runs about three to six years, with the most intense El Niño phase lasting about a year. Although no two ENSOs are alike, 11 have been identified since 1950. The warm phase of the most recent cycle persisted from 1990 to mid-1995, a duration unprecedented in the last 114 years of instrumental records—clearly a signal that something very unusual is happening.

 The stage for an El Niño is set by a distinctive pattern of sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific. Key features include a pool of warm water in the western tropical Pacific and much colder waters in the eastern Pacific. (See Map—>.) Easterly trade winds pile up the warm waters in the west, while wind-driven surface currents allow cooler nutrient-rich waters to upwell along the Equator and western coasts of the Americas, favouring plankton growth and thus fish. In time the increased convection and rainstorms that tend to occur over warmer waters affect atmospheric heating, which in turn influences the winds. The easterly trades weaken, and the warm waters in the west migrate eastward. This shifts the pattern of tropical rainstorms, further weakening the trades and reinforcing the eastward flow of warm waters.

      The atmospheric changes, however, are not confined to the tropics. They extend globally and affect the temperate latitudes, typically bringing dryness to some regions and heavy rainfall to others. The effects of an El Niño on society can be large, with losses often overshadowing gains. The oceanic changes can be disastrous for fish and seabirds and thus for the fishing and guano industries along the South American coast. The atmospheric changes act to suppress tropical storms and hurricanes in the tropical Atlantic. Consequently, the return to normal Pacific conditions in mid-1995 unleashed numerous devastating Atlantic tropical storms.

      Recent research has clarified ENSO's cyclic nature, showing that the moisture content and enormous heat capacity of the ocean make it the flywheel that drives the system through an essentially self-sustained seesawing sequence in which the ocean and atmosphere are never in equilibrium. Tropical warm water is redistributed, depleted, and restored during an ENSO cycle such that much of what is to come is determined by the previous one to two years. Consequently, the future becomes predictable for several seasons in advance.

      ENSO's recent abnormal behaviour has scientists wondering. Is it a natural variation, or is it related to human activity—in particular, to global warming associated with increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? A computer model using a century of modern ENSO records to simulate cycles for a million years suggests that the 1990-95 El Niño is very unusual and that the climate indeed may be changing in a way that will make such behaviour more likely. Increased greenhouse gases trap more heat in the atmosphere—clearly a potential source of interference with ENSO.

      What does this mean for the future? Because greenhouse gases are likely to continue increasing, the climate can be expected to continue to change, sometimes in ways unexpected. A challenge for scientists is to capitalize on their improved understanding of ENSO to make seasonal predictions of temperatures, rainfalls, and the way that the risk of extreme conditions varies from year to year. (KEVIN E. TRENBERTH)

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