Sunday, August 7, 2016

One year time lapse of the 2015-2016 El Niño event


This time lapse animation shows Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly (SSTA) covering a period from April 2015 until mid-June 2016.
El Niño development is clearly visible along the equator, peaking around mid-Nov 2015.
The rebound back to cooler temperatures in June foreshadows a corresponding La Niña event.
For more information, see climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/june-enso-discussion-new-neutral.
In this animation, it's also possible to see typhoon tracks in the Western Pacific between July and September 2015.
Typhoons suck up heat from the ocean and pump that energy into the atmosphere.
As a result, they leave tracks of unusually cool water visible in the SSTA data.
But don't blink!
Each track is visible for only a fraction of a second.
Sea surface temperature data comes from the Marine Modeling and Analysis Branch / EMC / NCEP / NWS / NOAA (polar.ncep.noaa.gov).
SSTA calculations and rendering are by earth.nullschool.net using 1981-2011 climatology provided by MMAB.

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