For the first two weeks in June, the surface winds and sea surface temperaturesacross the Pacific Ocean began to display an all-too-familiar pattern. Normally,the trade winds in the equatorial Pacific blow from east to west and push warmsurface waters from the eastern Pacific westward. As is indicated by the arrowsdisplaying wind speed and direction in the above Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat)satellite data, the trade winds stopped and in some cases reversed course acrossthe equatorial Pacific in early June. Consequently, the waters in the easternPacific grew warmer than usual. If this trend continued or intensified, anotherEl Niño would have settled in by fall 2002 and rainfall and atmosphericcirculation patterns would have begun to change across North and South America.However, in the later half of June conditions returned to normal.
Scientists hope that satellite data from QuikScat will help them to study andeven forecast future El Niño events. Launched aboard the SeaWinds satellite in1999, the QuickScat instrument essentially sends out high frequency radio wavesto detect the frothiness of ocean water. Since choppy ocean water is createdalmost solely by the surface winds blowing across the ocean, scientists canobtain an accurate measure of wind speed and direction from these data.
References & Resources
Image courtesy NASA JPL Air-Sea Interaction & Climate Team
None
