From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Wed Aug 30 2000 - 11:40:13 MDT
MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Contact: Rosemary Sullivant (818) 354-0474
IMAGE ADVISORY August 29, 2000
LOS NINOS MAY BE GONE, BUT PESKY PACIFIC PATTERN REMAINS
After three years of El Nino and La Nina with their often devastating
climate consequences, the Pacific is finally calming down in the tropics
but still shows signs of being abnormal elsewhere, according to the latest
satellite data from the U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon mission.
These data, taken during a 10-day cycle of collection ending August 17,
show that tropical Pacific sea levels, which indicate how much heat is
stored in the ocean, have returned to near-normal (green) after three years
of dramatic fluctuations. See http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/elnino/ .
But as summer ends in the Northern Hemisphere, remnants of the past few
years remain embedded in the upper ocean. Above-normal sea surface heights
and warmer ocean temperatures (indicated by the red and white areas) still
blanket the far-western tropical Pacific and much of the north (and south)
mid-Pacific. Red areas are about 10 centimeters (4 inches) above normal;
white areas show the sea surface height is between 14 and 32 centimeters (6
to 13 inches) above normal. This contrasts with the Bering Sea and Gulf of
Alaska where lower-than-normal sea levels and cool ocean temperatures
continue (indicated by blue areas), although this pattern is also
weakening. The blue areas are between 5 and 13 centimeters (2 and 5 inches)
below normal, whereas the purple areas range from 14 to18 centimeters (6 to
7 inches) below normal.
Looking at the entire Pacific basin, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation's
(PDO) characteristic warm horseshoe and cool wedge pattern is still evident
in this sea-level height image. The PDO is a long-term ocean temperature
fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean that waxes and wanes approximately every
10 to 20 years. Most recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) sea-surface temperature date also clearly illustrate the persistence
of this basin-wide pattern. They are available at:
http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/climo.html .
"The present calming started three to four months ago when the La
Nina faded away," said oceanographer Dr. William Patzert of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It appears that the global
climate system is finally recovering from the past three years of dramatic
swings from the extra-large El Nino of 1997/1998, which was followed by two
unusually cool and persistent La Nina years."
"The good news is that we're finally out from under the El Nino and La
Nina
of the past three years," Patzert said. "Unfortunately, in the longer term,
the reality is that the PDO pattern still dominates the Pacific and, in the
short term, the atmosphere is still acting as though La Nina remains. The
western United States continues hot and dry, and a larger than normal
number of hurricanes are forecast by NOAA for both the Pacific and the
Atlantic. Also for the remainder of the summer and into the fall, we are
continuing to experience the legacy or hangover from El Nino and La Nina --
the devastating Western U.S. fires from the Canadian to Mexican borders are
one example."
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National
Weather
Service has forecasted continuing heat in the Western United States and an
active hurricane season for the end of summer and into the fall. NOAA
seasonal forecasts can be found at: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov and
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov .
This month marks the eighth anniversary of the launch of
TOPEX/Poseidon, a
mission that had been planned to last only three to five years. The
satellite has orbited Earth more than 37,400 times and completed 290 10-day
data collection cycles. More than 99 percent of all available mission data
has been collected and archived by the operations team at JPL.
The U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon mission is managed by JPL for NASA's
Earth
Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
For more information on the TOPEX/Poseidon project, see:
http://topex-www.jpl.nasa.gov .
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