THE CHILD OF

THE PACIFIC

Reported by: Marl Dennis T. Javal

• How does El Niño form?

• What are the usual effects?

• How can we track it?

• RECENT EVENTS
HOW DOES
El Niño FORM?
What are the
usual effects OF
El Niño?
Pacific
Central and East: above average precipitation
Northeast: above-average temperatures
West and Northwest: drier and warmer than most years
How can we track
El Niño?
• SATELLITES
• MOORED INTRUMENTS
SATELLITES
Weather satellites orbiting 800 km above the Earth
carry instruments that map heat coming from the
ocean. The maps give the temperature of the water.
SATELLITES
Altimeter satellites such as Topex/Poseidon and
Jason measure the height of the sea surface. The
height is called sea level.
SATELLITES
Scatterometers such as the one on QuickSCAT are
special radars that measure wind speed. To watch for
weak or reversing trade-winds, they map wind speed
in the western equatorial Pacific.
MOORED INSTRUMENTS
A mooring is a steel or
plastic rope that goes from
a float on the surface to an
anchor on the sea floor.
The moorings holds
instruments that measure
surface winds, air
temperature, relative
humidity, sea surface
temperature, and
underwater temperatures.
RECENT EVENTS
• El Niño events were observed in 2002–03, 2004–05,
2006–07 and 2009–10. A strong El Niño has not
occurred since 1997–98
• The sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) over the
tropical Pacific remained to be El Niño Southern
Oscillation (ENSO)- neutral during the past several
months
• PAGASA has already noted significant increase in the
SSTA from 0.2 to 0.4°C from April 21 to April 28,
2014. Because of this development and as climate
models predict that this condition may persist for the
next nine months, PAGASA is foreseeing the onset of El
Niño in June which may peak during the last quarter of
2014 and may last up to the first quarter of 2015
REFERENCES
• oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/elnino/elnino1.htm
• myfox8.com/2014/10/18/winter-weather-outlook-
goodbye-polar-vortex-hello-el-nino/
• www.pagasa.dost.gov.ph/news-archive/897-el-nino-
watch