El Niño is an oscillation of the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropical Pacific having important consequences for weather around the globe. (http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/el-nino-story.html) El Niño occurs in United States, Mexico, South America, Indonesia, Australia, Southern parts of Asia, most of tropical Pacific, and Philippines. In detecting El Niño, scientists use several types of satellite imagery to detect El Niño. Imagery from the Topex/Poseidon satellites measures height of the sea surface, which enables scientists to look for increased water height in the western Pacific Ocean. The body of water is also warmer than the surrounding water, so the satellites that measure sea surface temperature are also used in studies of El Niño. (http://octopus.gma.org/surfing/weather/elnino.html) There are many different things El Niño can cause. Some of those things are: drought, forest fires, crop failures, hurricanes, flooding, mudslides, causes animals to leave their homes, people die from famine. In all places where El Niño effects, people die, or are hurt. El Niño can be pretty brutal. In an El Nino, the winds pushing that water around get weaker. As a result, some of the warm water piled up in the west slumps back down to the east, and not as much cold water gets pulled up from below. Both these tend to make the water in the eastern Pacific warmer, which is one of the hallmarks of an El Nino. Then the warmer ocean affects the winds (it makes the winds weaker!). (http://www.glys.com/elnino/unsearch/fcauses.htm) El Nino occurs every 20 -30 years, 2-7 years, or 10-15 years, this just depends on what pattern it’s on. El Niño is a warm storm that affects the weather throughout the year. Winters are warmer than usual and summers are even hotter than usual due to the effects of the warm water currents.
( Mrs. Grivins i have pics for this in my word document i can't add them to this because i don't know how to.)
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