The climate system as a ticking clock
Climate researchers are picking up a more or less regular 2-year beat to the global climate system - one that seems to be heard from every quarter. The most recently discovered example of this climatic ticking - and perhaps the most intriguing - comes from the very core of El Nino. Researchers have found that some aspects of this cycle of alternating warm and relatively cold waters along the equatorial Pacific have a tendency to repeat every 2 years. The overlying winds pulsate at the same pace, as do the globe-girdling effects of the El Nino cycle, from winter warmth in Alaska to heavy rains in Peru and drought in Australia. The climatic ticking in the tropical Pacific is hardly as reliable as the changing of the seasons. Sometimes it is muted, and occasionally it skips a beat. But some researchers nevertheless see hope of using it in the prediction of El Nino and its global effects. In any case, climate researchers are eager to determine what makes El Nino tick. The answer could be an underlying pacemaker of this crucial atmospheric cycle.
- OSTI ID:
- 5932651
- Journal Information:
- Science (Washington, D.C.); (USA), Vol. 249:4974; ISSN 0036-8075
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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