'New El Nio' discovered south of the equator

JULY 22, 2024
by University of Reading

A small area of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, near New Zealand and Australia, can trigger temperature changes that affect the entire Southern Hemisphere, a new study has found.

The new climate pattern, which shares some characteristics with the El Niño phenomenon, has been named the "Southern Hemisphere Circumpolar Wavenumber-4 Pattern."

Unlike El Niño, which starts in the tropics, this new pattern begins in the mid-latitudes. The study, published this month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, highlights how important the interaction between the ocean and atmosphere is for our climate.

Balaji Senapati, lead author of the study at the University of Reading, said, "This discovery is like finding a new switch in Earth's climate. It shows that a relatively small area of the ocean can have wide-reaching effects on global weather and climate patterns.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-el-nio-south-equator.html