Mobile version

The El Niño of the century?

El Niño revealed

From February to April 1997, Topex/Poseidon satellite data pinpointed a large eastward-moving swelling of waters in the central Pacific. This positive sea-level anomaly, over 10 cm and increasing as the months went by, peaked near the coast. In July 1997, the signature was plain and south-east Asia was hit by severe drought. The anomaly, in red on the map, covered an area 1.5 times that of the United States. It corresponded to "extra" warm waters.
      

Closely monitoring the tropical ocean

Topex/Poseidon tracked the development of El Niño, highlighting a maximum anomaly of more than 20 cm in the northern winter. By June 1998, surface height was returning to normal. In July 1998, Topex/Poseidon revealed favourable conditions for La Niña, which developped in 1999. In 2000, ocean once more returned to normal.

Sea level rises, temperature too

Surface temperatures near the Galápagos Islands increased clearly during the northern summer, reaching more than 5°C above normal. These anomalies signalled the start of slack trade winds and increased ocean and atmosphere interactions. The 28.5°C temperature threshold triggered atmospheric convection, producing heavy rains over coastal Ecuador and Peru.

EnglishFrançais
Rss feedsContactPartnersFAQLexiconLegal noticePersonal Data Protection PolicyMobile
You must enable cookies in your browser preferences to save the modifications
You are using an older version of Internet Explorer, please update to take full advantage of Aviso+ features

Customize the home page

View all widgets
Reduce display
Public profile
User profile

Select/Deselect widgets

Discover AVISO+

Customizable home, reading tools, products search guide, etc.. Discover step by step the features of the new site AVISO+.

Customizable homepage

This home page is composed of blocks called "widgets".

Rearrange the blocks with a "Click & Drop".

Hide a widget with the cross at the top right. Reset or add a widget with the "wrench" icon. The "User" and "Public" profiles offer a predefined organization.

All the modifications are automatically saved as cookies on your machine so as to enable you to have your own specific AVISO+.

Reading tools

Ease your reading by choosing the page background colour (black/white) and/or by modifying the font size.

Browsing menu and breadcrum trail

To ease your browsing through AVISO+, you can use at any time the main banner items with the interactive submenus or use the browsing menu on the left side of the screen (it is open by default). For more readiness of the page contents, you can fold and unfold the browsing menu by clicking on the tab. At any time you can know where you are thanks to the browsing menu or the breadcrum at the top of the page.

Products search guide

The first submenu of the "Data" banner item leads you to a new search form enabling you to find quickier the product that suits your needs. The list of results is updated according to your selection criteria.

AVISO+ Multimedia

The first submenu of the "Multimedia" banner item leads you to AVISO+ collections of images and videos linked to altimetry and its applications. Have a nice visit!