El Nino Essay Research Paper El NinoWhat

El Nino Essay, Research Paper

El Nino

What Are We Going To Do.

Peter Hymmen

Introduction

What is El Nino. The man-made environmental disaster made out to be, or an escape from what researchers cannot explain. Understanding the events structure and global impact is the first step to interpreting these questions. The global population cannot take sides on an issue that they do not comprehend, yet recent data encourages the belief that humans are to blame for this ecological disaster and continuously make it worse. Accurately measuring recent El Ninos and predicting those that follow, will determine if we should be concerned about what is happening climatically.

This paper suggests that there is a lot to be learnt about this outrageous environmental fiasco. Without proper information there can be no judgement and there can be no correction. The only hardened fact that remains is that this topic, El Nino, should not be ignored, for if it does worsen, the whole world will be different.
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What is El Nino.

For hundreds of years, Peruvian fishermen noticed an unusually warm water current that appeared every year around Christmas. These fishers dubbed this occurrence .El Nino’, which is Spanish for The Little One. What was once an annual weather occurrence grew into a global phenomenon, linking many unconnected and unusual weather events around the world. El Nino refers to the warm phase of a larger warm/cold oscillation, or movement, occurring in the water and atmosphere of the Pacific region along the coasts of Peru and Ecuador. A typical warm El Nino phase could last between 8 and 18 months. The unheard of counterpart to El Nino is La Nina (or El Viejo), which is the cold phase that could be just as strong, but with opposing effects. Scientists know this complete phenomenon as El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and the entire ENSO cycle usually last 3 to 7 years (Kessler-Internet). However, the cycle is unlike the changing seasons, and can vary in strength and timing. Currently, scientists do not completely understand what causes changes in the ENSO cycle.

How does El Nino work.

Under normal circumstances, cold water deep below the surface of the ocean tends to rise, and mixing with the water at the surface creates a transition zone called thermocline (Environment Canada-Internet). As cold water reaches the surface, small life forms begin feeding on its rich nutrients. Cold water will continue to rise because trade winds blow the warm surface water from east to west. Few thunderstorms and little rainfall result from these stable atmospheric conditions of a non-El Nino season. But during El Nino, the trade winds weaken leaving a deeper layer of warm surface water and making it difficult for cold water to rise to the

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ocean surface. Since warm water lacks nutrients, the fish that relied upon the small life forms accompanying the cold water die off. An increase of thunderstorms and heavy rainfall may also occur.

El Nino is much more than a temperature change in the ocean levels. During a usual season, the trade winds blow from east to west across the southern Pacific, moving warm water to the west. The atmosphere above the South/Eastern Pacific is dominated by a high-pressure, while the Western Pacific is dominated by a low pressure system. These differing pressures, in turn, drive the trade winds. However, during El Nino the pressures seesaw, a high pressure dominating the west and a low in the east, thus changing the winds and flow of ocean currents (Thrive Online-Internet).

Environmental Impacts

A mature El Nino will affect the weather around the world. Nevertheless, the most visible impacts generally take place in the tropical areas. It typically produces drought over southeast Asia, Australia and sometimes New Zealand. As well it frequently causes abnormally high rain falls over South America – in places which are often very dry (Environment Canada-Internet). As the El Nino phenomenon increases, its effects can be felt beyond the tropics. The warm water creates more uncommonly intense hurricanes in the Pacific. With a fierce El Nino, storms travel from the tropics producing heavy rainfall, flooding and damage across the globe. The 1982-83 El Nino, called the El Nino of the century, caused more than $2 billion in damage in the United States alone and included Australia’s worst drought in over 200 years (Environment Canada-Internet). The largest known ecological effect of El Nino took place in 1970 when the nutrient

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supply for fish collapsed off the coast of Peru and Equador. Back to back El Ninos in 1972 and 1974 forced the Fisheries Minister of Peru to prevent anyone from fishing the near barren area. Several years later, despite a dramatic attempt to recover, the damage appeared to have been permanent and is not expected to recover.

In Canada, the most evident effects of El Nino take place in the winter. Air temperatures across the country rise an average of 3 degrees Celcius during El Nino. This creates uncommonly mild and dry winters, most noticeable over the Prairies and British Columbia. The Arctic regions and Atlantic provinces maintain unaffected by an El Nino event (Environment Canada-Internet).Measuring El Nino

An El Nino episode can be measured, and is done so quite easi

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