Figure NOAA/PMEL/TAO Project Office
periodic warming of eastern Pacific
The ocean and atmosphere interact to produce El Niño, a periodic warming (shown in red) of the eastern Pacific Ocean along the equator. A weakening of tropical trade winds in the west spawns an eastward-moving wave. The sea surface warms as the wave lowers the thermocline, the dividing line between warm and cool waters, in the east. Increased atmospheric convection further weakens the trade winds and supports the warm surface waters.
sea temperature January 1998
sea temperature June 1998
Visualizations of sea surface temperature mapped onto sea surface height show El Niño (January 1998) and La Niña (June 1998) conditions. Red traces warm water, and blue traces cool water. As demonstrated in side-by-side comparisons, NSIPP's oceanic model produces a fairly realistic match with satellite measurement.

 
Michele Rienecker
Max Suarez
NSIPP oceanographer Michele Rienecker (left) and atmospheric scientist Max Suarez use the 1,024-processor CRAY T3E supercomputer at Goddard Space Flight Center.