Satellite Data of Ocean Temp. Anomalies http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/ EPS/SST/data/anomnight.current.small.gif Click SST Map to see the Current Imagery

WWNFF ESI'98 @ Rutgers University      Mentor: Dr. Anna Matteoda El Nino/SouthernOscillation (ENSO)   a web product from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship  Foundation Leadership Program for Teachers

Climate change is a topic of great interest both within the scientific community and in public and political circles.  Woodrow Wilson fellows, teachers of middle school and high school students, gathered at Rutgers University to investigate environmental issues and to collaborate on curriculum ideas regarding climate change. El Nino and the Southern Oscillation served as an area of focus for our project team.  El-Nino is an oceanic phenomenon, while Southern Oscillation refers to an atmospheric process.  Both phenomena occur in the Pacific Ocean region.  It is our hope that this web product will allow you to explore the effects of this complicated and globally relevant weather event and provide an example of how web resources can be used to drive inquiry based student work.

To see how El Nino conceptually fits within this topic, jump to the El Nino concept map.  (coming soon)

The world is an interconnected place.  The behavior of localized ocean currents and the atmosphere above them, even in distant regions far removed from your home, can influence the weather your town experiences.  Scientists, modeling the interaction of these processes, now know that the careful observation of atmospheric pressure, sea surface temperature, wind intensity and direction, and other physical parameters is very important in order to understand our planet's climate and the variability inherent in "the weather." Such studies have revealed patterns in weather and climate models derived from this work serve as valuable predictors of extreme events.  One such event, initially thought to yield only local effects, is El Nino.

In our small research team, we quickly learned the complex, intertwined, and dynamic nature of the oceanographic - atmospheric system.  El Nino itself is really just an extreme player within a well documented cycle of climatic variability.  When examined against the backdrop of average sea surface temperatures, tornadic and cyclonic activity, and rainfall distribution, El Nino sticks out like a sore thumb.  Similarly obvious are patterns that produce intense bouts of "below normal conditions;" strong upwelling and a depression of sea surface temperatures stretching out across the equatorial pacific.  These episodes are called La Nina events and together these two extreme departures from normal climate are thought to be responsible, in part, for the wide temperature and precipitation variability we see from year to year.

Use this page as a springboard as you jump into the topic of El Nino and regional climatic variability.  The navigation tool below will take you to every corner of our web product. Our primary goal is to foster inquiry based education. We have modeled this form of education by conducting our own searches, posing our own questions, drawing conclusions, and then reporting our findings to share with you on the net.  Though the site contains many resources and much information, be certain to visit our team page and learn of our process and individual projects.

Woodrow Wilson El Nino Research Team Products	Remote Sensing  How Data is Obtained	Teacher Resource Page  ENSO Curriculum Ideas	Links to Data Web Sites Galore!
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