Effects of El Nino and La Nina on Hurricane Development

This topic submitted by Kimberly Carvey, Diana Maikut, Joel Leer ( Carveykn@muohio.edu ) on 3/11/04 .

Global Climate Change -Western Program-Miami University

QUICKTIME Movie--Hurricane Isabel "Winds-Up" to a Category 5 Hurricane, 9/12/03 For a 9MB larger version, click here. For a smaller, streamed version, click here Note the dramatic intensification early in this 10 day movie followed by an amazing collapse of her inner core. North Carolina was very lucky! Here is an MPEG-4 Version of "10 Days of Isabel"

Abstract

Seventy five percent of the surface of our world is covered by water, at its deepest the water is about 36,000 feet thick. One may think that because of this massive amount of water that the oceans are a stable nonchanging entity, and for the most part this is true, but it is the surface of the oceans that are important when discussing present day weather and climate patterns, for the surface of the ocean changes much more readily than the more constant deep ocean.

This proposal concerns oceanic surface temperature changes in the equatorial regions of the pacific. The changes in temperature cover an immense area from the west coast of South America across the Pacific to Indonesia . These changes are cyclic, hence called the El Nino Southern Oscillation (referred to as ENSO), and contain three basic phases:

el nino, or warm surface water phase
la nina, or cool surface water phase
intermittent or normal phase when temperatures and conditions are normal

To quantify how the ENSO affects weather across the globe, data from tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons during each ENSO phase will be compiled and compared. Data collected will include but will not be limited to pressure, wind speed, duration, size, and tidal surge of specific storms and number of storms during each season. The hurricane data will be collected and compared to the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), which is used to measure the relative strengths of El Nino and La Nina.

To view our ENTIRE proposal, please CLICK HERE or visit the following URL: /studentresearch/climate_projects_04/el_nino/index.html

Thanks!

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