These concentrated rain bands account for 40 percent of California’s water supply. Researchers studying storms and their relationship to strong El Niños believe it will.ĭuane Waliser, chief scientist of the Earth Science and Technology Directorate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and his colleagues analyzed the historical record of atmospheric rivers. One big question about the current El Niño is whether it will bring significant rainfall to drought-plagued California. New satellite observations are beginning to show scientists its impact on the distribution of rain, tropospheric ozone and wildfires around the globe. People the world over are feeling, or soon will feel, the effects of the strongest El Niño event since 1997-98, currently unfolding in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Approximately 15 years of observations by NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing satellites show how El Niños affect multiple interconnected Earth systems. The increased ocean surface temperatures influence air and moisture movement around the globe. Credits: NASAĭue to this El Niño, tropospheric ozone, a pollutant and greenhouse gas, is seen decreasing over mid-latitude locations such as the United States, and the risk of fires across the tropics is showing signs of increasing.Īn El Niño, which is a reoccurring natural phenomenon, happens when sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean warm up. White colors are clouds, light blues water vapor, and green to red precipitation. An atmospheric river travels across the Pacific to California Oct 25 to Nov 2, 2014. New results presented Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco show that atmospheric rivers, significant sources of rainfall, tend to intensify during El Niño events, and this year’s strong El Niño likely will bring more precipitation to California and some relief for the drought.
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