At all times, the yellow press has increased its ratings due to various news of a mystical, catastrophic, provocative or revealing nature. However, in lately More and more people are beginning to be frightened by various natural disasters, the ends of the world, etc. In this article we will talk about one natural phenomenon that sometimes borders on mysticism - the warm El Niño current. What is this? This question is often asked by people on various Internet forums. Let's try to answer it.

Natural phenomenon El Niño

In 1997-1998 One of the largest natural disasters associated with this phenomenon in the entire history of observations took place on our planet. This mysterious phenomenon caused a lot of noise and attracted close attention from the world's media. mass media, and his name is for the phenomenon, the encyclopedia will tell. In scientific terms, El Niño is a complex of changes in the chemical and thermobaric parameters of the atmosphere and ocean that take on the character of a natural disaster. As you can see, this is a very difficult definition to understand, so let’s try to look at it through the eyes of an ordinary person. The reference literature says that El Niño is just a warm current that sometimes occurs off the coast of Peru, Ecuador and Chile. Scientists cannot explain the nature of the appearance of this current. The name of the phenomenon itself comes from Spanish and means "baby". El Niño got its name due to the fact that it appears only at the end of December and coincides with Catholic Christmas.

Normal situation

In order to understand the anomalous nature of this phenomenon, first let us consider the usual climate situation in this region of the planet. Everyone knows that the mild weather in Western Europe is determined by the warm Gulf Stream, while in the Pacific Ocean of the Southern Hemisphere the tone is set by the cold Antarctic. The prevailing Atlantic winds here - the trade winds, which blow on the western South American coast, crossing the high Andes, leave all the moisture on the eastern slopes. As a result, the western part of the mainland is a rocky desert where rain is extremely rare. However, when the trade winds pick up so much moisture that they can transport it across the Andes, they form a powerful surface current here, which causes a surge of water off the coast. The attention of specialists was attracted by the colossal biological activity of this region. Here, in a relatively small area, annual fish production exceeds the global total by 20%. This also leads to an increase in fish-eating birds in the region. And in places where they accumulate, a colossal mass of guano (dung) - a valuable fertilizer - is concentrated. In some places the thickness of its layers reaches 100 meters. These deposits became the object industrial production and export.

Catastrophe

Now let's look at what happens when the warm El Niño current appears. In this case, the situation changes dramatically. An increase in temperature leads to mass death or loss of fish and, as a result, birds. Next comes the fall atmospheric pressure in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, clouds appear, trade winds subside, and the winds change their direction to the opposite. As a result, torrents of water fall on the western slopes of the Andes, floods, floods, and mudflows rage here. And on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean - in Indonesia, Australia, New Guinea - a terrible drought begins, which leads to forest fires and the destruction of agricultural crops. However, the El Niño phenomenon is not limited to this: “red tides”, which are caused by the growth of microscopic algae, begin to develop from the Chilean coast to California. It would seem that everything is clear, but the nature of the phenomenon is not completely clear. Thus, oceanographers consider the appearance of warm waters to be a consequence of a change in winds, and meteorologists explain the change in winds by the heating of waters. What kind of vicious circle is this? However, let's look at some things that climate scientists have missed.

Degassing El Niño scenario

What kind of phenomenon this is, geologists helped to figure it out. For ease of understanding, we will try to move away from specific scientific terms and tell everything in a generally accessible language. It turns out that El Niño forms in the ocean above one of the most active geological sections of the rift system (the rift earth's crust). Hydrogen is actively released from the depths of the planet, which, upon reaching the surface, forms a reaction with oxygen. As a result, heat arises, which warms the water. In addition, this leads to the emergence of over the region, which also contributes to more intense heating of the ocean. solar radiation. Most likely, the role of the Sun is decisive in this process. All this leads to an increase in evaporation, a decrease in pressure, as a result of which a cyclone is formed.

Biological productivity

Why is there such high biological activity in this region? Scientists estimate that it corresponds to the heavily fertilized ponds in Asia and is more than 50 times higher than in other parts of the Pacific Ocean. Traditionally, this is usually explained by the wind driving warm waters from the coast - upwelling. As a result of this process, cold water, enriched with nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), rises from the depths. And when El Niño appears, upwelling is interrupted, as a result of which birds and fish die or migrate. It would seem that everything is clear and logical. However, here too, scientists do not say much. For example, the mechanism for rising water from the depths of the ocean slightly Scientists measure temperatures at various depths oriented perpendicular to the shore. Then graphs (isotherms) are constructed, comparing the level of coastal and deep waters, and the above-mentioned conclusions are drawn from this. However, temperature measurements in coastal waters incorrect, because it is known that their coldness is determined by the Peruvian Current. And the process of constructing isotherms across the coastline is incorrect, because the prevailing winds blow along it.

But the geological version easily fits into this diagram. It has long been known that the water column of this region has a very low oxygen content (the reason is a geological discontinuity) - lower than anywhere on the planet. And the upper layers (30 m), on the contrary, are abnormally rich in it due to the Peruvian Current. It is in this layer (above the rift zones) that unique conditions for the development of life are created. When the El Niño current appears, degassing intensifies in the region, and the thin surface layer is saturated with methane and hydrogen. This leads to the death of living beings, and not at all the lack of food supply.

Red tides

However, with the onset of an environmental disaster, life here does not stop. Single-celled algae - dinoflagellates - begin to actively reproduce in the water. Their red color is protection from solar ultraviolet radiation (we already mentioned that an ozone hole forms over the region). Thus, thanks to the abundance of microscopic algae, many marine organisms that act as ocean filters (oysters, etc.) become poisonous, and eating them leads to severe poisoning.

The model is confirmed

Let's consider interesting fact, confirming the reality of the degassing version. American researcher D. Walker carried out work to analyze sections of this underwater ridge, as a result of which he came to the conclusion that during the years of El Niño's appearance, it sharply intensified seismic activity. But it has long been known that it is often accompanied by increased degassing of the subsoil. So, most likely, scientists simply confused cause and effect. It turns out that the changed direction of El Niño is a consequence, not the cause of subsequent events. This model is also supported by the fact that during these years the water literally boils with the release of gases.

La Niña

This is the name given to the final phase of El Niño, which results in a sharp cooling of the water. A natural explanation for this phenomenon is the destruction of the ozone layer over Antarctica and the Equator, which causes and leads to an influx cold water in the Peruvian Current, which cools El Niño.

Root cause in space

The media blame El Niño for floods in South Korea, unprecedented frosts in Europe, droughts and fires in Indonesia, destruction of the ozone layer, etc. However, if you remember the fact that the mentioned current is just a consequence geological processes, occurring in the bowels of the Earth, then we should think about the root cause. And it is hidden in the influence on the core of the planet of the Moon, the Sun, the planets of our system, as well as other celestial bodies. So it’s useless to blame El Niño...

The Southern Oscillation and El Niño are a global ocean-atmospheric phenomenon. A characteristic feature of the Pacific Ocean, El Niño and La Niña are temperature fluctuations in surface waters in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. The names for these phenomena, borrowed from the native Spanish and first coined in 1923 by Gilbert Thomas Volcker, mean "baby" and "little one," respectively. Their influence on the climate of the southern hemisphere is difficult to overestimate. The Southern Oscillation (the atmospheric component of the phenomenon) reflects monthly or seasonal fluctuations in the difference in air pressure between the island of Tahiti and the city of Darwin in Australia.

The circulation named after Volcker is a significant aspect of the Pacific phenomenon ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation). ENSO is many interacting parts of one global system of ocean-atmospheric climate fluctuations that occur as a sequence of oceanic and atmospheric circulations. ENSO is the world's best known source of interannual weather and climate variability (3 to 8 years). ENSO has signatures in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

In the Pacific, during significant warm events, El Niño warms up and expands across much of the Pacific tropics and becomes directly correlated with SOI (Southern Oscillation Index) intensity. While ENSO events are primarily between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, ENSO events in Atlantic Ocean are 12-18 months behind the first ones. Most of the countries that experience ENSO events are developing ones, with economies that are heavily dependent on the agricultural and fishing sectors. New capabilities to predict the onset of ENSO events in three oceans could have global socioeconomic implications. Since ENSO is a global and natural part of the Earth's climate, it is important to know whether changes in intensity and frequency could be a result of global warming. Low frequency changes have already been detected. Interdecadal ENSO modulations may also exist.

El Niño and La Niña

Common Pacific pattern. Equatorial winds collect a warm pool of water to the west. Cold waters rise to the surface along the South American coast.

AND La Niña officially defined as long-term marine surface temperature anomalies greater than 0.5 °C crossing the Pacific Ocean in its central tropical part. When a condition of +0.5 °C (-0.5 °C) is observed for a period of up to five months, it is classified as an El Niño (La Niña) condition. If the anomaly persists for five months or longer, it is classified as an El Niño (La Niña) episode. The latter occurs at irregular intervals of 2-7 years and usually lasts one or two years.
Increase in air pressure over the Indian Ocean, Indonesia and Australia.
A drop in air pressure over Tahiti and the rest of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Trade winds in the South Pacific are weakening or heading east.
Warm air appears near Peru, causing rain in the deserts.
Warm water spreads from the western part of the Pacific Ocean to the eastern. It brings rain with it, causing it to occur in areas that are usually dry.

Warm El Niño current, consisting of plankton-depleted tropical water and heated by its eastern channel in the Equatorial Current, it replaces the cold, plankton-rich waters of the Humboldt Current, also known as the Peruvian Current, which contains large populations of game fish. Most years, the warming lasts only a few weeks or months, after which weather patterns return to normal and fish catches increase. However, when El Niño conditions last for several months, more extensive ocean warming occurs and its economic impact on local fisheries for the external market can be severe.

The Volcker circulation is visible on the surface as easterly trade winds, which move water and air heated by the sun westward. It also creates oceanic upwelling off the coasts of Peru and Ecuador, bringing cold plankton-rich waters to the surface, increasing fish populations. The western equatorial Pacific Ocean is characterized by warm, humid weather and low atmospheric pressure. The accumulated moisture falls in the form of typhoons and storms. As a result, in this place the ocean is 60 cm higher than in its eastern part.

In the Pacific Ocean, La Niña is characterized by unusually cold temperatures in the eastern equatorial region compared to El Niño, which in turn is characterized by unusually warm temperatures in the same region. Atlantic tropical cyclone activity generally increases during La Niña. A La Niña condition often occurs after an El Niño, especially when the latter is very strong.

Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)

The Southern Oscillation Index is calculated from monthly or seasonal fluctuations in the air pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin.

Long-term negative values SOIs often signal El Niño episodes. These negative values ​​typically accompany continued warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific, decreased strength of the Pacific trade winds, and decreased rainfall in eastern and northern Australia.

Positive SOI values ​​are associated with strong Pacific trade winds and warming water temperatures in northern Australia, well known as a La Niña episode. The waters of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become colder during this time. Together this increases the likelihood of more rainfall than normal in eastern and northern Australia.

El Niño influence

As El Niño's warm waters fuel storms, it creates increased precipitation in the east-central and eastern Pacific Ocean.

In South America, the El Niño effect is more pronounced than in North America. El Niño is associated with warm and very wet summer periods (December-February) along the coast of northern Peru and Ecuador, causing severe flooding whenever the event is severe. The effects during February, March, April may become critical. Southern Brazil and northern Argentina also experience wetter than normal conditions, but mainly during spring and early summer. The central region of Chile gets a mild winter with a large number rains, and the Peruvian-Bolivian Plateau sometimes experiences winter snowfalls unusual for this region. Drier and warmer weather is observed in the Amazon Basin, Colombia and Central America.

Direct effects of El Niño are reducing humidity in Indonesia, increasing the likelihood of forest fires, in the Philippines and northern Australia. Also in June-August, dry weather is observed in the regions of Australia: Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales and eastern Tasmania.

The western Antarctic Peninsula, Ross Land, Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas are covered with large amounts of snow and ice during El Niño. The latter two and the Wedell Sea become warmer and are under higher atmospheric pressure.

In North America, winters are generally warmer than normal in the Midwest and Canada, while central and southern California, northwestern Mexico and the southeastern United States are getting wetter. The Pacific Northwest states, in other words, dry out during El Niño. Conversely, during La Niña, the US Midwest dries out. El Niño is also associated with decreased hurricane activity in the Atlantic.

East Africa, including Kenya, Tanzania and the White Nile Basin, experience long periods of rain from March to May. Droughts plague southern and central Africa from December to February, mainly Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana.

Warm Pool of the Western Hemisphere. A study of climate data showed that approximately half of the post-El Niño summers experienced unusual warming in the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool. This influences the weather in the region and appears to have a connection to the North Atlantic Oscillation.

Atlantic effect. An El Niño-like effect is sometimes observed in the Atlantic Ocean, where water along the equatorial African coast becomes warmer and water off the coast of Brazil becomes colder. This can be attributed to the Volcker circulation over South America.

Non-climatic effects of El Niño

Along east coast South America El Niño reduces the upwelling of cold, plankton-rich water that supports large fish populations, which in turn maintain abundance seabirds, whose droppings support the fertilizer industry.

Local fishing industries along coastlines may experience shortages of fish during prolonged El Niño events. The world's largest fisheries collapse due to overfishing, which occurred in 1972 during El Niño, led to a decline in the Peruvian anchovy population. During the events of 1982-83, populations of southern horse mackerel and anchovies declined. Although the number of shells in warm water increased, hake went deeper into cold water, and shrimp and sardines went south. But the catch of some other fish species has been increased, e.g. common horse mackerel increased its population during warm events.

Changing locations and types of fish due to changing conditions have presented challenges for the fishing industry. The Peruvian sardine has moved towards the Chilean coast due to El Niño. Other conditions have only led to further complications, such as the Chilean government creating fishing restrictions in 1991.

It is postulated that El Niño led to the extinction of the Indian Mochico tribe and other tribes of the pre-Columbian Peruvian culture.

Causes that give rise to El Niño

The mechanisms that may cause El Niño events are still being researched. It is difficult to find patterns that can show causes or allow predictions to be made.
Bjerknes suggested in 1969 that abnormal warming in the eastern Pacific Ocean could be attenuated by east-west temperature differences, causing weakening in the Volcker circulation and trade winds that move warm water westward. The result is an increase in warm water to the east.
Virtky in 1975 suggested that the trade winds could create a westerly bulge of warm waters, and any weakening of the winds could allow warm waters to move east. However, no bulges were noticed on the eve of the events of 1982-83.
Rechargeable Oscillator: Some mechanisms have been proposed that when warm areas are created in the equatorial region, they are dissipated to higher latitudes through El Niño events. The cooled areas are then recharged with heat for several years before the next event occurs.
Western Pacific Oscillator: In the western Pacific Ocean, several weather conditions could cause easterly wind anomalies. For example, a cyclone in the north and an anticyclone in the south result in an easterly wind between them. Such patterns can interact with the westerly flow across the Pacific Ocean and create a tendency for the flow to continue eastward. A weakening of the westerly current at this time may be the final trigger.
The equatorial Pacific Ocean can lead to El Niño-like conditions with a few random variations in behavior. External weather patterns or volcanic activity can be such factors.
Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) is most important source variability that may contribute to the more abrupt evolution leading to El Niño conditions through fluctuations in low-level winds and precipitation over the western and central Pacific Ocean. The eastward propagation of oceanic Kelvin waves may be caused by MJO activity.

History of El Niño

The first mention of the term "El Niño" dates back to 1892, when Captain Camilo Carrilo reported at a congress Geographical Society in Lima that Peruvian sailors called the warm northerly current "El Niño" because it is most noticeable around Christmas. However, even then the phenomenon was interesting only because of its biological impact on the efficiency of the fertilizer industry.

Normal conditions along the western Peruvian coast there is a cold southern current (Peruvian Current) with upwelling water; plankton upwelling leads to active ocean productivity; cold currents lead to a very dry climate on earth. Similar conditions exist everywhere (California Current, Bengal Current). So replacing it with a warm northern current leads to a decrease in biological activity in the ocean and to heavy rains leading to flooding on land. The connection with flooding was reported in 1895 by Pezet and Eguiguren.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century there was increased interest in predicting climate anomalies (for food production) in India and Australia. Charles Todd suggested in 1893 that droughts in India and Australia occur at the same time. Norman Lockyer pointed out the same thing in 1904. In 1924, Gilbert Volcker first coined the term "Southern Oscillation."

For most of the twentieth century, El Niño was considered a large local phenomenon.

The Great El Niño of 1982-83 led to a sharp rise in the interest of the scientific community in this phenomenon.

History of the phenomenon

ENSO conditions have occurred every 2 to 7 years for at least the last 300 years, but most of them have been weak.

Major ENSO events occurred in 1790–93, 1828, 1876–78, 1891, 1925–26, 1982–83, and 1997–98.

Latest events El Niño occurred in 1986-1987, 1991-1992, 1993, 1994, 1997-1998 and 2002-2003.

The 1997–1998 El Niño in particular was strong and brought international attention to the phenomenon, while what was unusual about the 1990–1994 period was that El Niño occurred very frequently (but mostly weakly).

El Niño in the history of civilization

The mysterious disappearance of the Mayan civilization in Central America could be caused by severe climate changes. This conclusion was reached by a group of researchers from the German National Center for Geosciences, writes the British newspaper The Times.

Scientists tried to establish why, at the turn of the 9th and 10th centuries AD, at opposite ends of the earth, the two largest civilizations of that time ceased to exist almost simultaneously. We are talking about the Mayan Indians and the fall of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, which was followed by a period of internecine strife.

Both civilizations were in monsoon regions, the moisture of which depends on seasonal precipitation. However, at this time, apparently, the rainy season was not able to provide the amount of moisture sufficient for the development agriculture.

The ensuing drought and subsequent famine led to the decline of these civilizations, researchers believe. They link climate change to the natural phenomenon El Niño, which refers to temperature fluctuations in the surface waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean in tropical latitudes. This leads to large-scale disturbances in atmospheric circulation, causing droughts in traditionally wet regions and floods in dry ones.

Scientists came to these conclusions by studying the nature of sedimentary deposits in China and Mesoamerica dating back to this period. The last emperor of the Tang Dynasty died in 907 AD, and the last known Mayan calendar dates back to 903.

1 out of 10

Presentation on the topic:

Slide no. 1

Slide description:

Slide no. 2

Slide description:

General overview El Niño is a fluctuation in the temperature of the surface layer of water in the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean, which has a noticeable effect on the climate. In a narrower sense, El Niño is a phase of the Southern Oscillation in which an area of ​​heated surface water moves eastward. At the same time, trade winds weaken or stop altogether, and upwelling slows down in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Peru. The opposite phase of the oscillation is called La Niña.

Slide no. 3

Slide description:

First signs of El Niño Increase in air pressure over Indian Ocean, Indonesia and Australia. A drop in pressure over Tahiti, over the central and eastern parts of the Pacific Ocean. Weakening trade winds in the South Pacific until they stop and the wind changes direction to the west. Warm air mass in Peru, rains in the Peruvian deserts. This is also the influence of El Nino

Slide no. 4

Slide description:

The influence of El Niño on the climate of various regions In South America, the El Niño effect is most pronounced. This phenomenon typically causes warm and very humid summer periods (December to February) along the northern coast of Peru and Ecuador. When El Niño is strong, it causes severe flooding. Southern Brazil and northern Argentina also experience wetter than normal periods, but mostly in the spring and early summer. Central Chile experiences mild winters with plenty of rain, while Peru and Bolivia occasionally experience unusual winter snowfalls for the region.

Slide no. 5

Slide description:

Losses and damages More than 15 years ago, when El Niño first showed its character, meteorologists had not yet connected the events of those years: droughts in India, fires in South Africa and hurricanes that tore through Hawaii and Tahiti. Later, when the reasons for these disturbances in nature became clear, the losses brought by the willfulness of the elements were calculated. But it turned out that this is not all. Let's say rains and floods are direct consequences of a natural disaster. But secondary ones also came after them - for example, mosquitoes multiplied in new swamps and brought an epidemic of malaria to Colombia, Peru, India, and Sri Lanka. In Montana, people are being bitten by venomous snakes. They approached settlements, chasing their prey - mice, and they left their settled places due to lack of water, came closer to people and to water.

Slide no. 6

Slide description:

From myths to reality Meteorologists' predictions have been confirmed: catastrophic events associated with the El Niño current are hitting the earth one after another. Of course, it is very sad that all this is happening now. But still, it should be noted that humanity is encountering a global natural disaster for the first time, knowing its causes and course further development. The El Niño phenomenon is already quite well studied. Science has solved the mystery that plagued Peruvian fishermen. They did not understand why sometimes during the Christmas period the ocean becomes warmer and the shoals of sardines off the coast of Peru disappear. Because the arrival of warm water coincided with Christmas, the current was called El Niño, which means “baby boy” in Spanish. Fishermen, of course, are interested in the immediate reason for the departure of the sardines...

Slide no. 7

Slide description:

The fish leave... ...The fact is that sardines feed on phytoplankton. And algae need sunlight and nutrients - primarily nitrogen and phosphorus. They are in ocean water, and their stock in top layer constantly replenished by vertical currents coming from the bottom to the surface. But when the El Niño current turns back towards South America, its warm waters “lock” the exit of deep waters. Biogenic elements do not rise to the surface, and algae reproduction stops. The fish leave these places - they do not have enough food.

Slide no. 8

Slide description:

Magellan's mistake The first European to swim across largest ocean planet, was Magellan. He called him "The Quiet One". As it soon became clear, Magellan was mistaken. It is in this ocean that most typhoons are born, and it produces three-quarters of the planet's clouds. Now we have also learned that the El Niño current emerging in the Pacific Ocean sometimes causes many different troubles and disasters on the planet...

Slide no. 9

Slide description:

El Niño is an elongated tongue of highly heated water. It is equal in area to the United States. Heated water evaporates more intensely and “pumps” the atmosphere with energy faster. El Niño supplies it with 450 million megawatts, which is equivalent to the power of 300,000 large nuclear power plants. It is clear that this energy, according to the law of conservation of energy, does not disappear. And now in Indonesia, disaster broke out in full force. First, there was a raging drought on the island of Sumatra, then the dried-out forests began to burn. In the impenetrable smoke that enveloped the entire island, the plane crashed upon landing, and a tanker and a cargo ship collided at sea. The smoke reached Singapore and Malaysia...

Slide no. 10

Slide description:

Years in which El Niño was recorded 1864, 1871, 1877-1878, 1884, 1891, 1899, 1911-1912, 1925-1926, 1939-1941, 1957-1958, 1965-1966, 1972, 1976, 82-1983 , 1986-1987, 1992-1993, 1997-1998. , in 1790-1793, 1828, 1876-1878, 1891, 1925-1926, 1982-1983 and 1997-1998, powerful phases of El Niño were recorded, while, for example, in 1991-1992, 1993, 1994 this phenomenon often repeating, it was weakly expressed. El Niño 1997-1998 was so strong that it attracted the attention of the world community and the press.



EL NINO CURRENT

EL NINO CURRENT, a warm surface current that sometimes (after about 7-11 years) arises in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and heads towards the South American coast. It is believed that the occurrence of the current is associated with irregular fluctuations in weather conditions on the globe. The name is given to the current from the Spanish word for the Christ child, as it most often occurs around Christmas. The flow of warm water is preventing plankton-rich cold water from rising to the surface from the Antarctic off the coast of Peru and Chile. As a result, fish are not sent to these areas to feed, and local fishermen are left without a catch. El Niño can also have more far-reaching, sometimes catastrophic, consequences. Its occurrence is associated with short-term fluctuations in climatic conditions all over the world; possible drought in Australia and other places, floods and harsh winters in North America, stormy tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean. Some scientists have expressed concerns that global warming could cause El Niño to occur more frequently.

The combined influence of land, sea and air on weather conditions set a certain rhythm of climate change on a global scale. For example, in the Pacific Ocean (A), winds typically blow from east to west (1) along the equator, -pulling- solar-heated surface layers of water into the basin north of Australia and thereby lowering the thermocline - the boundary between warm surface and cooler deep layers water (2). Above these warm waters high cumulus clouds, which cause rain during the summer wet season (3). Cooler waters rich in food resources come to the surface off the coast of South America (4), large schools of fish (anchovy) flock to them, and this, in turn, is based on a developed fishing system. The weather over these cold water areas is dry. Every 3-5 years, changes occur in the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere. The climate pattern is reversed (B) - this phenomenon is called "El Niño". Trade winds either weaken or reverse their direction (5), and warm surface waters that “accumulated” in the western Pacific Ocean flow back, and the water temperature off the coast of South America rises by 2-3°C (6) . As a result, the thermocline (temperature gradient) decreases (7), and all this greatly affects the climate. In the year when El Niño occurs, droughts and forest fires rage in Australia, and floods in Bolivia and Peru. Warm waters off the coast of South America are pushing deeper into the layers of cold water that support plankton, causing the fishing industry to suffer.

Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary.

See what “EL NINO CURRENT” is in other dictionaries:

The Southern Oscillation and El Niño (Spanish: El Niño Baby, Boy) is a global ocean-atmospheric phenomenon. As a characteristic feature of the Pacific Ocean, El Niño and La Niña (Spanish: La Niña Baby, Girl) are temperature fluctuations... ... Wikipedia

Not to be confused with Columbus's La Niña caravel. El Niño (Spanish: El Niño Baby, Boy) or Southern Oscillation (English: El Niño/La Niña Southern Oscillation, ENSO) fluctuation in the temperature of the surface layer of water in ... ... Wikipedia

- (El Niño), a warm seasonal surface current in the eastern Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Ecuador and Peru. It develops sporadically in summer when cyclones pass near the equator. * * * EL NINO EL NINO (Spanish: El Nino “Christ Child”), warm... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary

Warm surface seasonal current in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of South America. It appears once every three or seven years after the disappearance of the cold current and lasts for at least a year. Usually originates in December, closer to the Christmas holidays,... ... Geographical encyclopedia

- (El Nino) warm seasonal surface current in the eastern Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Ecuador and Peru. It develops sporadically in the summer when cyclones pass near the equator... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

El Niño- Anomalous warming of ocean water off the west coast of South America, replacing the cold Humboldt Current, which brings heavy rainfall to the coastal areas of Peru and Chile and occurs from time to time as a result of the influence of southeastern... ... Dictionary of Geography

- (El Nino) warm seasonal current of surface waters of low salinity in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean. Distributed in the summer of the Southern Hemisphere along the coast of Ecuador from the equator to 5 7° S. w. In some years, E.N. intensifies and... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

El Niño- (El Niňo)El Nino, a complex climatic phenomenon that occurs irregularly in the equatorial latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. Name E. N. initially referred to the warm ocean current, which annually, usually at the end of December, approaches the shores of the northern... ... Countries of the world. Dictionary

Author: S. Gerasimov
On April 18, 1998, the newspaper “World of News” published an article by N. Varfolomeeva “Moscow snowfall and the mystery El Niño phenomenon” which said: “...We have not yet learned to be scared at the word El Niño... It is El Niño that is a threat to life on the planet... The El Niño phenomenon has practically not been studied, its nature is unclear, it cannot be predicted, which means it represents in the full sense of the word, a time bomb... If efforts are not immediately made to clarify the nature of this strange phenomenon, humanity cannot be sure of the future.” Agree that all this looks quite ominous, it’s just scary. Unfortunately, everything that is described in the newspaper is not fiction, not a cheap sensation to increase the circulation of the publication. El Niño is a real unpredictable natural phenomenon - a warm current so affectionately named.
"El Niño" means "baby" or "little boy" in Spanish. This tender name originated in Peru, where local fishermen have long been faced with an incomprehensible mystery of nature: in other years, the water in the ocean suddenly heats up and moves away from the shores. And this happens just before Christmas. That's why the Peruvians connected their miracle with the Christian mystery of Christmas: in Spanish, El Niño is the name for the Holy Child Christ. True, before it did not bring such troubles as it does now. Why does a phenomenon sometimes demonstrate its full strength, while in other cases it shows almost no effect? And what caused the Peruvian miracle, the consequences of which are very serious and sad?
For 20 years now, an entire scientific army has been exploring the space between Indonesia and South America. 13 meteorological ships, replacing each other, are constantly in these waters. Many buoys are equipped with instruments to measure water temperature from the surface to a depth of 400 meters. Seven planes and five satellites are patrolling the skies over the ocean to get an overall picture of the state of the atmosphere, including understanding the mysterious natural phenomenon El Niño. This occasionally occurring warm current off the coast of Peru and Ecuador is associated with the occurrence of unfavorable weather disasters around the world. It is difficult to follow it - this is not the Gulf Stream, stubbornly moving along a set route for thousands of years. And El Niño occurs, like a jack-in-the-box, every three to seven years. From the outside it looks like this: from time to time in the Pacific Ocean - from the coast of Peru all the way to the islands of Oceania - a very warm giant current appears, with a total area equal to the area of ​​the United States - about 100 million km2. It extends into a long, tapering sleeve. Over this vast space, as a result of increased evaporation, colossal energy is pumped into the atmosphere. The El Niño effect releases energy with a capacity of 450 million megawatts, which is equal to the total capacity of 300 thousand large nuclear power plants. It's like one more thing - an extra one - the Sun rises from the Pacific Ocean, heating our planet! And then here, as if in a giant cauldron, between America and Asia, the signature climatic dishes of the year are cooked.
Naturally, the first to celebrate its “birth” are Peruvian fishermen. They are concerned about the disappearance of schools of sardines off the coast. The immediate reason for the departure of the fish lies, as it turns out, in the disappearance of food. Sardines, and not only them, feed on phytoplankton, a component of which is microscopic algae. And algae need sunlight and nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus. They are present in ocean water, and their supply in the upper layer is constantly replenished by vertical currents going from the bottom to the surface. But when the El Niño current turns back towards South America, its warm waters “lock” the exit of deep waters. Biogenic elements do not rise to the surface, and algae reproduction stops. The fish leave these places - they do not have enough food. But sharks appear. They also react to “problems” in the ocean: bloodthirsty robbers are attracted by the temperature of the water - it rises by 5-9 ° C. It is precisely this sharp increase in the temperature of the surface layer of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean (in the tropical and central parts) that lies the phenomenon of El- Niño. What is happening to the ocean?
In normal years, warm surface ocean waters are transported and retained easterly winds– by trade winds – in the western zone of the tropical Pacific Ocean, where the so-called tropical warm pool (TTB) is formed. It should be noted that the depth of this warm layer of water reaches 100-200 meters. The formation of such a huge heat reservoir is the main necessary condition for the birth of El Niño. At the same time, as a result of the surge of water, the sea level off the coast of Indonesia is two feet higher than off the coast of South America. At the same time, the water surface temperature in the west is tropical zone averages +29-30° C, and in the east +22-24° C. A slight cooling of the surface in the east is the result of the rise of deep cold waters to the surface of the ocean when water is sucked in by trade winds. At the same time, the largest region of heat and stationary unstable equilibrium in the ocean-atmosphere system is formed above the TTB in the atmosphere (when all forces are balanced and the TTB is motionless).
For unknown reasons, once every three to seven years the trade winds suddenly weaken, the balance is upset and the warm waters of the western basin rush east, creating one of the strongest warm currents in the World Ocean. Over a vast area in the eastern Pacific Ocean, in the tropical and central equatorial parts, there is a sharp increase in the temperature of the surface layer of the ocean. This is the onset of El Niño. Its beginning is marked by a long onslaught of squally westerly winds. They replace the usual weak trade winds over the warm western part of the Pacific Ocean and block the rise of cold deep waters to the surface, that is, the normal circulation of water in the World Ocean is disrupted. Unfortunately, such a scientific, dry explanation of the causes is nothing compared to the consequences.
But then a giant “baby” was born. Each of his “sighs”, each “wave of his little hand” causes processes that carry global character. El Niño is usually accompanied by environmental disasters: droughts, fires, heavy rains, causing flooding of vast areas of densely populated areas, which leads to the death of people and the destruction of livestock and crops in different regions of the Earth. El Niño also has a significant impact on the state of the global economy. According to American experts, in 1982-1983 the economic damage from his “pranks” in the USA amounted to 13 billion dollars and from one and a half to two thousand people died, and according to the estimates of the world’s leading insurance company Munich Re, the damage in 1997-1998 is estimated at already 34 billion dollars and 24 thousand human lives.
Drought and rain, hurricanes, tornadoes and snowfalls are the main satellites of El Niño. All this, as if on command, falls to the Earth in unison. During his “coming” in 1997-1998, fires turned tropical forests Indonesia to ashes, and then raged across the vast expanses of Australia. They reached the outskirts of Melbourne. The ashes flew to New Zealand - 2000 kilometers away. Tornadoes swept through places where they had never been. Sunny California was attacked by “Nora” - a tornado (as a tornado is called in the USA) of unprecedented size - 142 kilometers in diameter. He rushed over Los Angeles, almost tearing the roofs off the Hollywood film studios. Two weeks later, another tornado, Pauline, struck Mexico. The famous resort of Acapulco was attacked by ten-meter ocean waves - buildings were destroyed, the streets were littered with debris, garbage and beach furniture. The floods did not spare South America. Hundreds of thousands of Peruvian peasants fled from the onset of water that fell from the sky, their fields were lost, flooded with mud. Where streams used to gurgle, turbulent streams rushed by. The Chilean Atacama Desert, which has always been so unusually dry that NASA tested its Mars rover there, was hit by torrential rains. Catastrophic floods were also observed in Africa.
In other parts of the planet, climate turmoil has also brought misfortune. In New Guinea, one of the largest islands on the planet, mainly in its eastern part, the land is cracked by heat and drought. Tropical greenery dried up, wells were left without water, crops died. Half a thousand people died of hunger. There was a threat of a cholera epidemic.
Usually a “little boy” frolics for about 18 months, so the planet has time to change seasons several times. It makes itself felt not only in summer, but also in winter. And if at the turn of 1982-1983 in the village of Paradise (USA) 28 m 57 cm of snow fell in a year, then in the winter season of 1998/99, thanks to the El Niño phenomenon, drifts of 29 meters grew in a few days at the ski base on Mount Baker 13 cm.
And if you think that these cataclysms do not affect the vast expanses of Europe, Siberia or the Far East, then you are deeply mistaken. Everything that happens in the Pacific Ocean reverberates throughout the planet. This is a monstrous snowfall in Moscow, and 11 floods of the Neva - a record for three hundred years of the existence of St. Petersburg, and +20 ° C in October in Western Siberia. It was then that scientists began to speak with alarm about the retreat of the permafrost border to the north.
And if earlier meteorologists and other specialists did not know what caused such a “collapse” in the weather, now the cause of all disasters is considered to be the return movement of the El Niño current in the Pacific Ocean. They study it up and down, but cannot squeeze it into any framework. Scientists just shrug their shoulders – this is an anomalous climate phenomenon.
And what’s most interesting is that they paid attention to this phenomenon only in the last 100 years. But, as it turns out, the mysterious El Niño has existed for many millions of years. Thus, archaeologist M. Moseli claims that 1100 years ago powerful current, or rather, generated by him natural disasters, destroyed the system of irrigation canals and thereby destroyed the highly developed culture of a large state in Peru. Humanity simply had not previously associated these natural disasters. Scientists began to carefully analyze everything connected with the “baby”, and even studied his “pedigree”.
The Huon Peninsula in the area of ​​the island of New Guinea was chosen to reveal the secrets of El Niño. It consists of a series of terraces coral reef. Part of this island is constantly rising due to tectonic movement, and thus bringing to the surface samples of coral reef that are approximately 130,000 years old. Analysis of isotopic and chemical data from these ancient corals helped scientists identify 14 climate “windows” of 20-100 years each. Cold periods (40,000 years ago) and warm periods (125,000 years ago) were analyzed in order to assess flow patterns in different climate regimes. The coral samples obtained indicate that El Nino used to be not as intense as it has been in the last hundred years. Here are the years in which its anomalous activity was recorded: 1864,1871,1877-1878,1884,1891,1899,1911-1912, 1925-1926, 1939-1941, 1957-1958, 1965-1966, 1972, 1976, 1982 -1983, 1986-1987, 1992-1993, 1997-1998, 2002-2003. As you can see, the El Niño “phenomenon” is happening more often, lasting longer and causing more and more trouble. The periods from 1982 to 1983 and from 1997 to 1998 are considered the most intense.
The discovery of the El Niño phenomenon is considered the event of the century. After extensive research, scientists have discovered that the warm western basin typically enters an opposite phase, called La Niña, a year after an El Niño, when the eastern Pacific Ocean cools 5 degrees Celsius below average. Then recovery processes begin to take effect, bringing cold fronts to the western North American coast, accompanied by hurricanes, tornadoes and thunderstorms. That is destructive forces continue their work. It was noted that 13 El Niño periods accounted for 18 La Niña phases. Scientists were only able to verify that the distribution of TTB anomalies in the study area does not correspond to normal and therefore the empirical probability of the occurrence of La Niña is 1.7 times greater than the probability of the occurrence of El Niño.
The causes and increasing intensity of reverse currents still remain a mystery to researchers. Climatologists often benefit from historical materials in their research. Australian scientist William de la Mare, having studied old reports from whalers from 1931 to 1986 (when whaling was banned), determined that the hunt, as a rule, ended at the edge of the forming ice. Figures show that the summer ice limit from the mid-fifties to the early seventies shifted in latitude by 3°, that is, about 1000 kilometers to the south ( we're talking about about the Southern Hemisphere). This result coincides with the opinion of scientists who recognize the warming of the globe as a result human activity. German scientist M. Latif from the Institute of Meteorology in Hamburg suggests that the disturbing influence of El Niño is increasing due to the increasing greenhouse effect on Earth. Unpleasant news about rapid warming is coming from the shores of Alaska: the glacier has become hundreds of meters thinner, salmon have changed their spawning time, beetles that have multiplied due to the heat are devouring the forest. Both polar caps of the planet are causing concern among scientists. However, representatives of science did not agree on the answer to the global question: does the “greenhouse effect” in the Earth’s atmosphere affect the intensity of El Niño?
But experts have learned to predict the arrival of the “baby.” And perhaps that is the only reason why the damage of the last two cycles did not have such tragic consequences. Thus, a group of Russian scientists from the Obninsk Institute of Experimental Meteorology, led by V. Pudov, proposed a new approach to predicting El Niño. They decided to develop the already known idea that the emergence of the current is associated with the development of tropical cyclones in the Philippine Sea region. Both typhoons and El Niño are consequences of the accumulation of excess heat in the surface layer of the ocean. The difference between these phenomena is in scale: typhoons release excess heat many times a year, and El Niño - once every few years. It was also noticed that before El Niño forms, the ratio of atmospheric pressure always changes in two points: in Tahiti and in Darwin, Australia. It is precisely this fluctuation in the pressure ratio that turned out to be the stable sign by which meteorologists can now learn in advance about the approach of the “formidable baby.”

News edited VENDETTA - 20-10-2010, 13:02