El Nino: Past, Present, and Future Essay -- Natural Science essays

El Nino Past, Present, and emergingEl Nino is both an atmospheric and oceanic phenomenon affecting weather patterns altogether around the world. It is complemented by La Nina in a cycle that occurs closely any 4 years, varying as much as every two years to every six years (Wang 1999, 3331). La Nina has almost the opposite effect, however differs in its strength and duration stochasticly, as does El Nino (Fedorov 2000, 1998). The cycle is often paraphrased as ENSO, standing for El Nino-Southern Oscillation (Flugel 1997, 3230). It is c aloneed this because the El Nino phenomenon is especially strong in the Southern Hemisphere, and has greater effects in argonas of the pacific near the equator. Although ENSO is prominent in certain areas, it alters weather patterns all around the world. The El Nino pattern can be quite random with and approximate range of 2 to 6 years per cycle, and is a rigid gun cerebrated to be triggered by western winds (Fedorov 2000, 1997). Many scientists are instantaneously looking to the past for answers, so the El Nino cycle can be predicted for the years to come. New discoveries have recently been made on El Ninos history, and possible future.Recent El Ninos and La Ninas have shown that there is no effect of the strength and duration of one on the other (Fedorov 2000, 1998). The utmost one in 1997 was among the strongest, next to the 1982 El Nino (Fedorov 1997). Although the ENSO is relatively unpredictable, some scientists believe it to be dependent upon the intensity of trade winds and the depth of the thermocline (Fedorov 2000, 1997). A thermocline is the seam of water that rests between the upper and lower layer water that are categorized by the water temperature (Fedorov 2000, 1997). For example, off the coast of Peru... ... could argue that these alterations from the prevalent ENSO cycle could be due to global warming. Right now more(prenominal) research is being conducted, which would be necessary to prove this theor y. Only cartridge clip can tell us whether we will need to beware of El Ninos wrath in the future or whether El Nino will be tapering out. Works CitedFedorov, Alexey V. and S. George Philander. Is El Nino Changing?. Science vol. 288, June 16, 2000, pp. 1997-2001.Flugel, Moritz and Ping Chang. Does the Predictability of ENSO wager on the Seasonal Cycle?. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences vol. 55, No. 21, pp. 3230-3243.Kerr, Richard A. El Nino Grew Strong As Cultures Were Born. Science vol. 283, Jan 22, 1999, pp. 467-468.Wang, Risheng and Bin Wang. Phase distance Representation and Characteristics of El Nino-La Nina. Journal of Atmospheric Sciences vol. 57, No. 19, pp. 3315-3333.