El-Nino, La-Nino and their Effects

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What is El-Nino?
El Nino means The Little Boy and is often called a warm event. El Nino is an oscillation of the oceanatmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe. In
general, El Nino is defined by prolonged warming in the Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures when
compared with the average value. The consequences are increased rainfall across the southern tier of the
US and in Peru, which has caused destructive flooding, and drought in the West Pacific, sometimes
associated with devastating brush fires in Australia.
La Nina means The Little Girl and is sometimes called El Viejo, or simply
a cold event. It is the climate counterpart to El Nino and is defined by
cooler-than-normal sea-surface temperatures across much of the
equatorial eastern and central Pacific.
El Nino is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the
Equatorial Pacific, as opposed to La Nina, which characterized by
unusually cold ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. An El Nino is
associated with high pressure in the western Pacific, whereas a La Nina is
associated with high pressure in the eastern Pacific.
The see-sawing of high pressure that occurs as conditions move from El
Nino to La Nina is known as the Southern Oscillation (SO); the
elnino
atmospheric component of El Nino. The strength of the Southern
Oscillation is measured by the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI); which is based on a long record of
pressure measured by two stations: Darwin (Australia) and Tahiti. The often used term El Nino-Southern
Oscillation (ENSO) is a coupled system, meaning the atmosphere and ocean influence each other. ENSO
affects the sea surface temperature (SST) in regions where fishing is a major industry to some countries.
The last extreme El Nino, in 199798, resulted in the hottest year on record, and the accompanying floods,
cyclones, droughts and wildfires killed an estimated 23,000 people and caused 21bn28bn in damage,
particularly to food production and also caused the worst coral bleaching in recorded history. In total, 16 per
cent of the worlds coral was lost and some countries like the Maldives lost up to 90 per cent of their reef
coverage.
This could spell disaster for the Coral Triangle, a south-east Asian bioregion thats the underwater
equivalent of the Amazon, home to more marine species than anywhere else on Earth. The Coral Triangle
sees prolonged periods of temperature anomaly during an El Nio because the equator passes through
the middle of it, so it experiences both northern and southern hemisphere summers.

(Source: www.climate.gov)

India is expected to be the first to suffer, with weaker monsoon rains, followed
by further scorching droughts in Australia and collapsing fisheries off South America. But some regions
could benefit, in particular the U.S., where El Nino is seen as the great wet hope, bringing rains that could
break the searing drought in the west.

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