Nasa releases satellite image of advancing El Niño – 06/22/2023 – Daily life

NASA (North American Space Agency) released this Wednesday (21) a satellite image showing the return of El Niño. The phenomenon, which officially began on the 8th, is characterized by an increase in temperature (and sea level) in the Pacific Ocean, close to the equator.

It is possible to detect the arrival of El Niño by measuring the temperature and the height of the ocean surface. That’s because sea level rises as the ocean warms, as warmer water expands and increases in volume.

The image shows sea surface height anomalies in the Pacific between June 1st and 10th. Shades of blue indicate below-average sea levels, and normal conditions appear in white. The regions in red point out where the ocean level was higher than normal.

El Niño alters the circulation of the trade winds, which run from east to west, taking moisture and warmer waters from the coast of the Americas to Asia and Oceania.

The phenomenon can have repercussions around the world and, according to NASA, it often leaves the weather in the southwestern United States colder and wetter, while countries like Indonesia and Australia face droughts.

It can also cause global warming, coral bleaching and economic damage. In Brazil, the most common effects are more chance of drought in the North and Northeast, increasing the risk of fires in the Amazon.

The El Niño map was created using data obtained by Sentinel satellites and processed by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The agency explains that signals related to seasonal cycles and long-term trends were removed to highlight sea level anomalies associated with El Niño.

Forecasts are that the climatic conditions associated with the phenomenon should intensify at the end of the year, during the summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Despite this, in the assessment of JPL oceanographer Josh Willis, for the time being El Niño is not as advanced in 2023 as it was in the same period of the year in previous events.

“It’s still a little early to say whether [o El Niño deste ano] it will be big”, says Willis, in a statement from NASA. “It will probably have some global impacts, but there is still time for this El Niño to be below expectations”.

The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations