The Pacific basin undergoes a natural warming and cooling cycle every few years, called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO. Changes from the warmer than normal (El Niño) to cooler than normal (La Niña) phases affect seasonal weather patterns across the globe, especially in coastal Pacific areas where wind and rainfall patterns are greatly altered. Recent analysis by NOAA has shown that as of May 2011, the Pacific transitioned from La Niña to a neutral phase. How quickly the Pacific transitions from neutral to El Niño remains to be seen. However, an area of warmer than normal temperatures can be seen in sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTa) data, an indication of an emerging El Niño. SSTa shows areas that are cooler or warmer than normal, and is one of the primary datasets used by scientists to assess ENSO.

This animation starts on March 1, 2011 and runs until June 7, 2011, showing the daily SSTa imagery generated from the NOAA Optimum Interpolation SST product, which uses a variety of satellite and buoy observations. Note how the equatorial regions transition from blue to white and then red colors as the spring progresses. SSTa data can be monitored in real-time by accessing the global imagery at [ Ссылка ].

Video and caption from NOAA [ Ссылка ]

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