EL NIÑO and LA NIÑA

El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Cycle

 It is an irregularly periodical climate change caused by variations in sea surface temperatures over the tropical eastern Pacific
Ocean, affecting much of the tropics and subtropics.
 It happens in a region found approximately between the International Date Line and 1200 west longitude, an area known as the
east central Equatorial Pacific.

Two Types of Complex Weather Patterns

1. El Niño
 El Niño means The Little Boy, or Christ Child in Spanish. El Niño was originally recognized by fishermen off the coast of
South America in the 1600s, with the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean. The name was chosen based
on the time of year (around December) during which these warm waters events tended to occur.
 It refers to the warm phase of ENSO

2. La Niña
 La Niña means The Little Girl in Spanish. La Niña is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Niño, or simply "a cold event."
 It refers to the cold phase of ENSO

El Niño and La Niña episodes typically last nine to 12 months, but some prolonged events may last for years. While their
frequency can be quite irregular, El Niño and La Niña events occur on average every two to seven years. Typically, El Niño occurs
more frequently than La Niña.

How do El Niño and La Niña occur?

Motion within the ocean is important. Within the ocean, an invisible boundary called the thermocline separates warm surface
water from cold, deeper water. A shallow thermocline indicates a small amount of warm water, and a deep thermocline means there's a
lot of warm water. Because warm water takes up more space than cold water, average sea level is higher where the thermocline is
deep and lower where the thermocline is shallow.

Normal Conditions
Under normal conditions, deep warm water
in the western Pacific produces a low pressure
region with heavy storm activity, while the eastern
Pacific is a dry, high pressure area with shallow
warm water. Surface winds blow from east to west,
while upper winds blow from west to east. The
thermocline is deeper, and sea level higher, in the
western Pacific than in the east.

El Niño Conditions
During El Niño, warm surface water
appears farther east and is spread over a broader
area. Weak Highs form east and west of the Low,
and surface and upper level winds are both weaker
than normal. The thermocline is deeper and flatter
overall, making average sea level of the eastern
Pacific higher than normal.

La Niña Conditions
La Niña episodes are characterized by the
westward shift of warm water. This produces
stronger Highs and Lows, with stronger than
normal surface and upper level winds. Warm water
is abnormally deep in the western Pacific and
abnormally shallow in the eastern Pacific. The
slope of the thermocline becomes steeper, and sea
level is higher than normal in the west and lower
than normal in the east.

Effects of El Niño and La Niña

El Niño La Niña
Warmer than normal sea surface water temperature in the Cooler than the normal sea surface temperature in the central
central and eastern tropical Pacific and eastern Pacific Ocean, near the equator off the west coast
of South America

Weaker easterly winds; warming of eastern and central Stronger easterly winds; rainfall deflects in the eastern equatorial
equatorial Pacific causes rainfall to shift several thousand Pacific and wet conditions confined to the western equatorial
kilometers east from the western equatorial Pacific Pacific.

Increase in the number of strong rainstorms in Indonesia and Heavy monsoon in India and most of Southeast Asia; winter
Australia; above average rainfall in South America; drought drought in southern United States, while warm and wet climate in
usually in Western Pacific northeast United States; cool wet winter in parts of Africa
CLIMATE CHANGE

 It is the change in Earth's overall climate.

 It is a change which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global
atmosphere observed over comparative time periods

CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE

A. Natural Causes B. Human Causes

1. Volcanic Eruptions (leads to increasing greenhouse gases)
2. Ocean Currents 1. Burning of fuels
3. Earth’s orbital changes 2. Coal Mining
More tilt = warmer summers and colder winters 3. Deforestation
Less tilt = cooler summers and milder winters 4. Industrial processes
4. Solar variations 5. Agriculture

Difference between Climate Change and Global Warming:

GLOBAL WARMING
 The gradual heating of Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere.
 It describes the average global surface temperature increase from human emissions of greenhouse gases.
 Scientists have documented the rise in average temperatures worldwide since the late 1800s. Earth's average
temperature has risen by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius) over the past century, according to the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
 Temperatures are projected to rise another 2 to 11.5 degrees F (1.133 to 6.42 degrees C) over the next 100
years.

GREENHOUSE EFFECT
 Greenhouse gases keep the Earth warm through a process called the greenhouse effect
 The Earth gets energy from the sun in the form of sunlight. The Earth's surface absorbs some of this energy and
heats up. The Earth cools down by giving off a different form of energy, called infrared radiation. But before all this
radiation can escape to outer space, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb some of it. These greenhouse
gases act like a mirror and reflect back to the Earth some of the heat energy which would otherwise be lost to
space, which makes the atmosphere warmer. As the atmosphere gets warmer, it makes the Earth's surface
warmer, too.

Some gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include:

1. Water Vapor (H2O) - The most abundant greenhouse gas, but importantly, it acts as a feedback to the climate.
Water vapor increases as the Earth's atmosphere warms, but so does the possibility of clouds and precipitation.

2. Carbon dioxide (CO2) - A minor but very important component of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is released
through natural processes such as respiration and volcano eruptions and through human activities such as
deforestation, land use changes, and burning fossil fuels. Humans have increased atmospheric
CO2 concentration by more than a third since the Industrial Revolution began.

3. Methane (CH4) - A hydrocarbon gas produced both through natural sources and human activities, including the
decomposition of wastes in landfills, agriculture, and especially rice cultivation, as well as ruminant digestion and
manure management associated with domestic livestock.

4. Nitrous oxide (N2O) - A powerful greenhouse gas produced by soil cultivation practices, especially the use of
commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production, and biomass burning.

5. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) - Synthetic compounds entirely of industrial origin used in a number of

applications, but now largely regulated in production and release to the atmosphere by international agreement
for their ability to contribute to destruction of the ozone layer.

EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE:

1. Rise in global temperature

2. Extreme drought
3. In sea level, melting of ice
sheets
4. Sea level rise
5. Decreased snow cover in
the mountains
6. Decline in crop productivity
7. Heavy rain fall across the
globe
8. Number of hurricanes
increases
9. Ecosystems are changing