Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Jan. 1995
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Jan. 2003
120°E 150°E 180° 150°W 120°W 90°W
Figure 3.3 Sea surface temperature across the Pacific Ocean on the equator plotted as
a function of time (
y
-axis) in a Hovmöller diagram.
But these sea surface temperature anomalies are only one aspect of the
ENSO oscillation. As the warm waters spread eastward across the equatorial
Pacific during a warm phase, the thermocline depth in the eastern Pacific (
Fig.
2.18a
) deepens and sea level rises. The low precipitation rates of the central
and eastern Pacific
(Fig. 2.26
) are replaced by higher rainfall rates as deep
convective cloudiness shifts eastward from the western Pacific warm pool. At
the same time, the low-level easterly winds over the eastern Pacific (
Fig. 2.13)
