The mysteries of the El Niño supercurrent. Peruvian Humboldt Current: "Pacific River El Niño Current on a Map of South America

Rains, landslides, floods, drought, smog, monsoon rains, countless casualties, multi-billion dollar damage... The name of the destroyer is known: in melodic Spanish it sounds almost gentle - El Niño (baby, little boy). So Peruvian fishermen call a warm current that appears at Christmas time off the coast of South America, adding a catch. True, sometimes, instead of the long-awaited warming, a sharp cooling suddenly sets in. And then the current is called La Niña (girl).

The first mention of the term "El Niño" refers to 1892, when Captain Camilo Carrilo made a report about this warm northern current at the congress of the Geographical Society in Lima. The name "El Niño" is given to the current because it is most noticeable during the Christmas period. However, even then, the phenomenon was only interesting because of its biological impact on the efficiency of the fertilizer industry.

For most of the 20th century, El Niño was considered a large, but still a local phenomenon.

The big El Niño in 1982-1983 led to a sharp jump in the interest of the scientific community in this phenomenon.

The El Niño of 1997-1998 far exceeded that of 1982 in terms of the number of deaths and destruction it brought, and was the most violent in the last century. The elements were so strong that at least 4,000 people died. The global damage has been estimated at more than $20 billion.

In recent years, the press and the media have contained many alarming reports of weather anomalies that have engulfed almost all continents of the Earth. At the same time, the unpredictable phenomenon of El Niño, which brings heat to the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, was called the main culprit for all climatic and social turmoil. Moreover, some scientists considered this phenomenon as a harbinger of even more radical climate change.

What data does science have today about the mysterious El Niño current?

The El Niño phenomenon consists in a sharp increase in temperature (by 5-9 ° C) in the surface layer of water in the eastern Pacific Ocean (in the tropical and central parts) over an area of ​​about 10 million square meters. km.

The processes of formation of the strongest warm current in the ocean in our century are supposedly as follows. Under normal weather conditions, when the El Niño phase has not yet begun, the warm surface waters of the ocean are transported and held by easterly winds - trade winds in the western zone of the tropical Pacific Ocean, where the so-called tropical warm basin (TTB) is formed. The depth of this warm layer of water reaches 100-200 meters. The formation of such a huge reservoir of heat is the main necessary condition for the transition to the El Niño regime. At the same time, as a result of the surge of water, the ocean level off the coast of Indonesia is half a meter higher than that of the coast of South America. At the same time, the temperature of the water surface in the west in the tropical zone averages 29-30 °C, and in the east 22-24 °C. A slight cooling of the surface in the east is the result of upwelling, i.e., the rise of deep cold waters to the surface of the ocean when water is sucked in by trade winds. At the same time, the largest region of heat and stationary unstable equilibrium is formed above the TTB in the atmosphere in the "ocean-atmosphere" system (when all forces are balanced and the TTB is immobile).

For unknown reasons, with an interval of 3-7 years, the trade winds weaken, the balance is disturbed, and the warm waters of the western basin rush to the east, creating one of the strongest warm currents in the oceans. Over a vast area in the eastern Pacific Ocean, there is a sharp increase in the temperature of the surface layer of the ocean. This is the onset of the El Niño phase. Its beginning is marked by a long onslaught of heavy westerly winds. They replace the usual weak trade winds over the warm western Pacific Ocean and prevent the rise of cold deep waters to the surface. As a result, upwelling is blocked.

Although the processes that develop during the El Niño phase are regional, nevertheless, their consequences are global in nature. El Niño is usually accompanied by environmental disasters: droughts, fires, heavy rains, causing flooding of vast areas of densely populated areas, which leads to the death of people and the destruction of livestock and crops in different parts of the Earth. El Niño has a significant impact on the state of the world economy. According to American experts, in 1982-1983 the economic damage from the consequences of El Niño amounted to 13 billion dollars, and according to the estimates of the world's leading insurance company Munich Re, the damage from natural disasters in the first half of 1998 is estimated at 24 billion dollars.

The warm western basin usually enters the opposite phase a year after El Niño, when the eastern Pacific cools. The phases of warming and cooling alternate with the normal state, when heat is accumulated in the western basin (TTB) and the state of stationary unstable equilibrium is restored.

According to many experts, the main cause of the ongoing cataclysms is global warming as a result of the "greenhouse effect" due to the technogenic development of the Earth and the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons).

Meteorological data on the temperature of the surface layer of the atmosphere, collected over the past hundred years, show that the climate on Earth has warmed by 0.5-0.6 ° C. The steady increase in temperature was interrupted by a short-term cooling in 1940-1970, after which the warming resumed.

Although the increase in temperature is consistent with the "greenhouse effect" hypothesis, there are other factors that influence warming (volcanic eruptions, ocean currents, etc.). It will be possible to establish the uniqueness of the cause of warming after the receipt of new data in the next 10-15 years. All models predict that warming will increase significantly in the coming decades. From this we can conclude that the frequency of the occurrence of the El Niño phenomenon and its intensity will increase.

Climate variations over a period of 3-7 years are determined by changes in the vertical circulation in the ocean and atmosphere and by ocean surface temperature. In other words, they change the intensity of heat and mass transfer between the ocean and the atmosphere. The ocean and atmosphere are open, non-equilibrium, non-linear systems, between which there is a constant exchange of heat and moisture.

Such systems, by the way, are characterized by the self-organization of such formidable structures as tropical cyclones, which transport the energy and moisture received from the ocean over long distances.

An assessment of the energy of the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere allows us to conclude that the energy of El Niño is able to disturb the entire atmosphere of the Earth, which leads to environmental disasters that have taken place in recent years.

In the long term, as noted Canadian climate change scientist Henry Hincheveld has shown, “Society needs to abandon the notion that climate is something that does not change. It is changeable, changes will continue, and humanity needs to develop an infrastructure that would allow us to be ready to face the unexpected.”

Thu, 06/13/2013 - 20:25

The circulation of the waters of the Pacific Ocean consists of two anticyclonic gyres. The Northern Gyre includes currents: Northern Equatorial, Mindanao and Kuro-shio, North Pacific and California. The southern gyre is made up of currents: part of the Antarctic Circumpolar, Peruvian (Cromwell), South Equatorial and East Australian. These cycles are separated by the Equatorial (intertrade) countercurrent. Its border with the South Equatorial Current is an equatorial front that blocks the access of warm water of the Equatorial countercurrent to the coast of Ecuador and Peru. Upwelling is developed here, which ensures high productivity of coastal waters. In the case of El Niño, a warm anomaly occurs that moves east

Natural disasters are not uncommon on our planet. They happen both on land and at sea. The mechanisms of the development of catastrophic phenomena are so confusing that it takes years for scientists to get closer to understanding the complex set of cause-and-effect relationships in the "atmosphere - hydrosphere - Earth" system.

One of the destructive natural phenomena, accompanied by numerous human casualties and colossal material losses, is El Niño. In Spanish, El Niño means “baby boy,” and it is so named because it often falls on Christmas. This "baby" brings with it a real disaster: off the coasts of Ecuador and Peru, the water temperature rises sharply, by 7 ... 12 ° C, fish disappear and birds die, and prolonged heavy rains begin. Legends about such phenomena have been preserved among the Indians of local tribes since the time when these lands were not conquered by the Spaniards, and Peruvian archaeologists have established that in ancient times, local residents, protecting themselves from catastrophic heavy rains, built houses not with flat ones, as now, but with double pitched roofs.

Although El Niño is usually referred to only as oceanic effects, in fact this phenomenon is closely related to meteorological processes, which are called the Southern Oscillation and are, figuratively speaking, atmospheric "swings" the size of the ocean. In addition, modern researchers of the Earth's nature have also managed to identify the geophysical component of this amazing phenomenon: it turns out that the mechanical and thermal vibrations of the atmosphere and ocean rock our planet with their combined efforts, which also affects the intensity and frequency of environmental disasters.
Ocean waters flow and... sometimes stop

In the southern tropical part of the Pacific Ocean in normal years (under average climatic conditions) there is a huge circulation with the movement of waters counterclockwise. The eastern part of the gyre is represented by the cold Peruvian current, heading north along the coasts of Ecuador and Peru. In the area of ​​the Galapagos Islands, under the influence of the trade winds, it turns to the west, passing into the South Equatorial Current, which carries relatively cold waters in this direction along the equator. Along the entire length of the boundary of its contact in the region of the equator with a warm inter-trade countercurrent, an equatorial front is formed, which prevents the inflow of warm waters of the countercurrent to the coast of Latin America.
Thanks to such a system of water circulation along the coast of Peru, in the zone of the Peruvian current, a huge area of ​​rise of relatively cold deep waters, well fertilized with mineral compounds, is formed - the Peruvian upwelling. Naturally, it provides a high level of biological productivity in the area. Such a picture was called "La Niña" (translated from Spanish as "baby girl"). This "sister" of El Niño is quite harmless.

In climatically anomalous years, La Niña transforms into El Niño: the cold Peruvian current, paradoxically, practically stops, thereby “blocking” the rise of deep cold waters in the upwelling zone, and as a result, the productivity of coastal waters sharply decreases. The temperature of the ocean surface throughout the region rises to 21...23°C, and sometimes even up to 25...29°C. The contrast of temperatures at the boundary of the South Equatorial Current with the warm inter-trade current or disappears altogether - the equatorial front is washed out, and the warm waters of the Equatorial countercurrent spread unhindered towards the coast of Latin America.

The intensity, scale and duration of El Niño can vary significantly. So, for example, in 1982-1983, during the period of the most intense El Niño observation in the 130-year period, this phenomenon began in September 1982 and continued until August 1983.

Other materials of the rubric

General information about the tsunami. Most often, a tsunami occurs as a result of an underwater earthquake. For the strongest earthquakes, about 1% of the earthquake energy is converted into tsunami energy. Interestingly, the tsunami energy grows in proportion to the square of the wave height.
The length of the tsunami front is approximately equal to the length of the earthquake source, and the wavelength is approximately equal to the width of the source. The height in the source does not exceed the height of uplift of rocks, i.e., 10 -2 -10 m for earthquake energy of about 10 14 -10 20 J. Due to the low altitude and large wavelength (10-100 km), the tsunami in the ocean remains practically inconspicuous. The height of the tsunami increases significantly when approaching the shore, i.e., in shallow water. Usually the height of the water hill does not exceed 60-70 m.


In 1868, the expedition of the Swedish polar explorer Nils Nordenskiöld on the ship "Sofia" raised dark stones from the bottom of the Kara Sea, which turned out to be ferromanganese concretions (concretions). Then the oceanographic expedition of Great Britain on the Challenger corvette (1872-1876) discovered similar concretions at the bottom of the Atlantic in the area of ​​the Canary Islands. The attention of geologists was attracted by the fact that, in addition to iron and manganese, a certain amount of non-ferrous metals was noticeable in them. Subsequently, underwater photographs showed that the bottom sometimes resembles a cobblestone pavement: it is completely covered with nodules 4-5 cm in size. Nodules protrude from the silt or form a layer up to half a meter thick in the upper part of the soil. The amount of ore reaches 200 kg/m 2 .


According to "authoritative sources", the year 2012 was declared by the ancient Maya as the year of the end of the world. Shortly after the “extreme” New Year holidays, a friend of my son decided to get additional information on this issue and found a chronological tablet on the Internet: a list of dates for the apocalypses predicted by anyone. As it turned out, a rare year was missed in it. The voluptuous anticipation of one's own death is one of mankind's favorite pastimes. As the cause of the catastrophe, the devouring of the Sun by the mythical wolf Fenrir or the mythical dog Garm, the transformation of the Sun into a supernova, the accomplishment of the Last Sin, the collision of the Earth with an unknown planet, nuclear war, global warming, global glaciation, the simultaneous eruption of all volcanoes, the simultaneous reset of all computers, simultaneous burning of all transformers, pandemic of AIDS, swine, chicken or cat flu. Some of these gloomy predictions have nothing to do with science, others are partly based on scientific facts. There are those who have a chance to turn out to be a reality, because, there is no getting around, our planet is really a speck of dust in the infinite Universe, a toy of huge cosmic forces.


... In the development of the Hydroenergoproekt (under the leadership of M.M. Davydov), the intake of water from the Ob and its transfer to the republics of Central Asia was supposed to be in the area of ​​​​the village. Belogorye. Here it was planned to build a 78 m high dam with a power plant with a capacity of 5.6 million kW. The reservoir formed by the dam with a mirror area of ​​more than 250 km² spread along the Irtysh and Tobol to the watershed. Behind the watershed, the transfer route ran along the southern slope of the Turgai Gates along the channels of modern and ancient rivers to the Aral Sea. From it, she was supposed to get to the Caspian along the Sarykamysh basin and Uzboy. The total length of the canal from Belogorye to the Caspian Sea was 4,000 km, of which about 1,800 km were natural water areas and reservoirs. The transfer of water was planned to be carried out in three stages: at the first - 25 km³, at the second - 60 km³, at the third - 75-100 km³, increasing the volume of water intake from the Ob...


Despite the success in the synthesis of artificial gems, including diamonds, the demand for natural stones is not falling. Crystals, born millions of years ago in the depths of the earth, become the pride of museums and private collections, they are used as banking assets... And most importantly, as in ancient times, diamonds remain the most desirable and expensive women's jewelry. But modern "treasure hunters" hope not only for luck: they seek to penetrate into the very mystery of the origin of crystalline carbon in order to get a reliable guiding thread in their hands in their difficult search...
Once my teacher Zbigniew Bartoszynski, professor at the Department of Mineralogy at Lviv University, said with a hint of irritation: “Soon, diamonds will be found at home behind the stove.” It was about opening in 1980.


Why do earthquakes occur? The generally accepted explanation is offered by the theory of plate tectonics. According to this theory, the lithosphere, the fragile hard shell of the Earth, is not monolithic. It is divided into plates, which move due to the movement of the plastic hard shell located below - the asthenosphere. And that, in turn, moves due to convective movements in the planet's mantle: hot matter rises, and cooled down. Why this does not happen on other planets is unclear, but for the Earth, the theory of plate tectonics has been considered proven since the sixties of the XX century. It was found that the extended elevations on the ocean floor - the so-called mid-ocean ridges - are composed of the youngest rocks, and their slopes are constantly moving away from each other.


...So, kimberlites and lamproites allowed us to look into the upper mantle of the Earth, at depths of 150-200 km. It turned out that at such depths, as well as on the surface, the composition of the Earth is heterogeneous. Variations in the composition of the mantle are caused, on the one hand, by repeated melting of igneous rocks (depleted mantle), and, on the other hand, by its enrichment in deep fluids and crustal material (enriched mantle). These processes are quite complex and depend on many factors: the composition of the fluids and sediments introduced, the degree of melting of the mantle substance, etc. As a rule, they overlap one another, causing complex multi-stage transformations. And the intervals between these stages can be hundreds of millions of years...


After the tragic events of December 26, 2004 in Southeast Asia, almost the entire population of our planet started talking about the tsunami. After the water shaft, an information tsunami hit us.
It was enough to look at the headlines of newspapers and magazines, listen to the announcements of television and radio programs, or turn to the Internet. For example, such. "The Tricks of a Leap Year". "Tsunami - the Earth's revenge for the flourishing debauchery in the countries of Southeast Asia." "What's going on with the weather?" "What happened? How unique is this? "Hurricane and flooding in Europe". "Unprecedented thaw in Moscow". Let's add from the author - and in Kharkov, and in Ukraine as a whole, the same thaw in January 2005 "Earthquake in the Donbass." "The Orange Revolution and the tsunami are links in the same chain." "Unprecedented snowfalls in Africa, America ...". "The tsunami is the work of the Jews." The tsunami is "the result of clandestine atomic weapons tests by the United States, Israel, and India."


... Modern marine geomorphologists, developing the concept of the shelf, have replenished the stock of geographical terms with one more, detailing the previous ideas about the underwater "stone shelves" of the continents. As part of the shelves, they distinguish a coastal zone - a section of the seabed, bounded on the land side by a line of maximum, annually repeated surge of the surf flow, and from the sea side - by a depth corresponding to 1/3 of the length of the largest storm wave in a given place. It is to such a depth that active excitement in the open sea penetrates. If we take it as 60 m, then the area of ​​the coastal zone of the World Ocean is equal to 15 million km 2, or 10% of the earth's land surface.
Some scientists in recent years define the coastal zone as a contact zone of mechanical interaction of moving masses of water and bottom material with each other and with a fixed bottom. ..


Earthquakes that occur quietly and slowly are fraught with danger. They can generate tsunamis or strong shocks that shake the earth's crust.
A giant landslide resulting from a silent earthquake could trigger a tsunami hundreds of meters high.

In November 2000, the largest earthquake in the last ten years occurred on the island of Hawaii. With a magnitude of 5.7, about 2 thousand cubic meters. km of the southern slope of the Kilauea volcano leaned towards the ocean. Part of the shift has taken place in a place where hundreds of tourists stop every day.
How did such a momentous event go unnoticed? It turns out that shudder is not inherent in all earthquakes. What happened at Kilauea was first identified as the manifestation of a quiet earthquake - a powerful tectonic movement that became known to science only a few years ago. My colleagues at the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory, who were observing volcanic activity, detected a tremor. Noticing that the southern slope of Kilauea moved 10 cm along the tectonic fault, I found that the movement of masses continued for about 36 hours - for a normal earthquake, the speed of a turtle. As a rule, the opposite walls of the fault heave in a matter of seconds, generating seismic waves that cause the rumble and shaking of the surface.

Can you imagine such a picture in the underground passage of your city?
But in vain. Everything is possible in our life, and even more!
Temperatures are rising, the climate is changing, rivers are overflowing, the world's oceans are rising, and scammers are skimming the cream off people's fears. global warming and a global example of this is the premiere of the film "". What is the connection with the cards, you think?
And here she is!

Recent sea level data from NASA (with the Jason-2 oceanography satellite) show that a large-scale, persistent weakening of the winds in the western and central equatorial Pacific during October caused a strong eastward moving wave of warm water. In the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, this warm wave manifests itself as an area of ​​higher sea level compared to normal and warmer sea surface temperatures.
The image was created using data collected by a US/European satellite during a 10-day period spanning late October and early November. The picture shows a red and white area in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, which is about 10 to 18 centimeters above normal. These areas contrast with the western equatorial Pacific, where lower water levels (blue and purple areas) are between 8 to 15 centimeters below normal. Along the equator, red and white represent areas where sea surface temperatures are one to two degrees Celsius above normal.

This is a set of interacting parts of one global system of ocean-atmospheric climatic fluctuations that occur as a sequence of oceanic and atmospheric circulations. This is the world's best-known source of interannual weather and climate variability (from 3 to 8 years).

The signs of El Niño are as follows:
Rising air pressure over the Indian Ocean, Indonesia and Australia.
Warm air appears next to Peru, causing rain in the deserts.
Warm water spreads from the western Pacific to the eastern. She brings rain with her, causing it in areas where it is usually dry.
As El Niño's warm waters feed storms, it creates increased rainfall in the east-central and eastern Pacific Oceans.
The west of the Antarctic Peninsula, Ross Land, the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas are covered with large amounts of snow and ice during El Niño. The latter two and the Wedell Sea are getting warmer and under higher atmospheric pressure.
In North America, winters tend to be warmer than usual in the Midwest and Canada, while it is getting wetter in central and southern California, northwestern Mexico, and the southeastern United States. The Pacific Northwest states, in other words, are drained during El Niño.
Based on this data, I can write a new script for a crushing blockbuster. As usual: apocalypse, catastrophe, panic… El Niño 2029 or El Niño 2033. Now it is fashionable to invent everything with numbers. Or maybe just.
El Ninh oh-oh

Fires and floods, droughts and hurricanes - all together hit our Earth at the end of the last century. The fires turned the forests of Indonesia to ashes, then raged across the expanses of Australia. Downpours are frequent over the Chilean Atacama Desert, which is particularly dry. Heavy rains and floods did not spare South America either. The total damage from the willfulness of the elements amounted to about 50 billion dollars. Meteorologists consider the phenomenon to be the cause of all these disasters.

El Niño means "baby" in Spanish. This is the name given to the anomalous warming of the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Ecuador and Peru, which occurs every few years. This affectionate name only reflects the fact that El Niño most often begins around the Christmas holidays, and the fishermen of the west coast of South America associated it with the name of Jesus in infancy.

In normal years, along the entire Pacific coast of South America, due to the coastal rise of cold deep waters caused by the surface cold Peruvian Current, the ocean surface temperature fluctuates in a narrow seasonal range - from 15°C to 19°C. During the El Niño period, the ocean surface temperature in the coastal zone rises by 6-10°C. As evidenced by geological and paleoclimatic studies, the mentioned phenomenon exists for at least 100 thousand years. Fluctuations in the temperature of the surface layer of the ocean from extremely warm to neutral or cold occur with periods of 2 to 10 years. Currently, the term "El Niño" is used in relation to situations where abnormally warm surface waters occupy not only the coastal region near South America, but also most of the tropical Pacific Ocean up to the 180th meridian.

There is a constant warm current, originating from the coast of Peru and stretching to the archipelago lying southeast of the Asian continent. It is an elongated tongue of heated water, equal in area to the territory of the United States. The heated water evaporates intensively and "pumps" the atmosphere with energy. Clouds form over the warm ocean. Usually trade winds (constantly blowing easterly winds in the tropical zone) drive a layer of this warm water from the American coast towards Asia. Approximately in the region of Indonesia, the current stops, and monsoon rains pour over southern Asia.

During El Niño near the equator, this current warms up more than usual, so the trade winds weaken or do not blow at all. The heated water spreads to the sides, goes back to the American coast. An anomalous convection zone appears. Rains and hurricanes hit Central and South America. The La Niño phenomenon, the opposite of El Niño, manifests itself as a decrease in surface water temperature below the climatic norm in the east of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Unusually cold weather sets in the East Pacific during this period. During the formation of La Niño, the trade winds (east) winds from the west coast of both Americas increase significantly. The winds shift the zone of warm water and the "language" of cold waters stretches for 5000 km, exactly in the place (Ecuador - Samoa Islands), where during El Niño there should be a belt of warm waters. During this period, powerful monsoon rains are observed in Indochina, India and Australia. The Caribbean and the United States suffer from droughts and tornadoes. La Niño, like, most often occurs from December to March. The difference is that El Niño occurs on average once every three to four years, while La Niño occurs once every six to seven years. Both phenomena bring with them an increased number of hurricanes, but during La Niño there are three to four times more than during El Niño.

According to observations, the reliability of the onset of El Niño or La Niño can be determined if:

1. At the equator, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, a patch of warmer water than usual (El Niño), colder (La Niño) is formed.

2. The atmospheric pressure trend between the port of Darwin (Australia) and the island of Tahiti is compared. With El Niño, pressure will be high in Tahiti and low in Darwin. With La Niño, the opposite is true.

Research over the past few decades has established that El Niño means more than just the coordinated fluctuations in surface pressure and ocean water temperature. El Niño and La Niño are the most pronounced manifestations of interannual climate variability on a global scale. These phenomena are large-scale changes in ocean temperatures, precipitation, atmospheric circulation, and vertical air movements over the tropical Pacific.

Abnormal weather conditions on the globe during El Niño years

In the tropics, there is an increase in precipitation over areas east of the central Pacific and a decrease from the norm over northern Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. In December-February, more than normal precipitation is observed along the coast of Ecuador, in northwestern Peru, over southern Brazil, central Argentina and over equatorial, eastern Africa, during June-August in the western United States and over central Chile.

El Niño events are also responsible for large-scale air temperature anomalies around the world. During these years, there are outstanding temperature rises. Warmer than normal conditions in December-February were over southeast Asia, over Primorye, Japan, the Sea of ​​Japan, over southeast Africa and Brazil, southeast Australia. Warmer than normal temperatures occur in June-August along the west coast of South America and over southeastern Brazil. Colder winters (December-February) occur along the southwest coast of the United States.

Abnormal weather conditions on the globe during the La Niño years

During La Niño periods, precipitation increases over the western equatorial Pacific, Indonesia and the Philippines and is almost completely absent in the eastern part. More precipitation falls in December-February over northern South America and over South Africa, and in June-August over southeastern Australia. Dryer-than-normal conditions occur over the coast of Ecuador, over northwest Peru and equatorial east Africa during December-February, and over southern Brazil and central Argentina in June-August. There are large-scale abnormalities around the world with the largest number of areas experiencing abnormally cool conditions. Cold winters in Japan and in Primorye, over southern Alaska and western, central Canada. Cool summer seasons over southeast Africa, over India and southeast Asia. Warmer winters over the US Southwest.

Some aspects of telecommunications

Despite the fact that the main events associated with El Niño occur in the tropical zone, they are closely related to processes occurring in other regions of the globe. This can be traced on long-distance communications over the territory and in time - teleconnections. During El Niño years, energy transfer to the troposphere of tropical and temperate latitudes increases. This is manifested in an increase in thermal contrasts between tropical and polar latitudes, and intensification of cyclonic and anticyclonic activity in temperate latitudes. The frequency of occurrence of cyclones and anticyclones in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean from 120°E was calculated at the Far Eastern Research Institute of Geological Research. up to 120°W It turned out that the cyclones in the band 40°-60° N.L. and anticyclones in the band 25°-40° N.L. formed in subsequent winters after El Niño more than in previous ones; processes in the winter months after El Niño are characterized by greater activity than before this period.

During the El Niño years:

• weakened Honolulu and Asian anticyclones;
• the summer depression over southern Eurasia is filled, which is the main reason for the weakening of the monsoon over India;
• the summer depression over the Amur basin, as well as the winter Aleutian and Icelandic depressions, are more developed than usual.

On the territory of Russia during the El Niño years, areas of significant air temperature anomalies are distinguished. In spring, the temperature field is characterized by negative anomalies, that is, spring during El Niño years is usually cold in most of Russia. In summer, the focus of below zero anomalies over the Far East and Eastern Siberia remains, and over Western Siberia and the European part of Russia, centers of above zero air temperature anomalies appear. In the autumn months, significant air temperature anomalies over the territory of Russia were not identified. It should only be noted that in the European part of the country the temperature background is slightly lower than usual. El Niño years experience warm winters over most of the area. The center of negative anomalies can be traced only over the northeast of Eurasia.

We are currently in a period of weakening of the cycle - a period of average distribution of ocean surface temperatures. (The El Niño and La Niño events represent opposite extremes of ocean pressure and temperature cycles.)

Over the past few years, great progress has been made in the comprehensive study of the El Niño phenomenon. Scientists believe that the key issues of this problem are fluctuations in the system atmosphere - ocean - Earth. In this case, atmospheric fluctuations are the so-called Southern Oscillation (coordinated fluctuations in surface pressure in a subtropical anticyclone in the southeast Pacific Ocean and in a trough stretching from northern Australia to Indonesia), ocean fluctuations are El Niño and La Niño phenomena and fluctuations Earth - the movement of geographic poles. Also of great importance in the study of the El Niño phenomenon is the study of the impact of external cosmic factors on the Earth's atmosphere.

Peruvian Current or Humboldt Current(Spanish: Corriente de Humboldt) - a cold ocean current in the southeastern Pacific Ocean; flows from south to north from the coast of Antarctica along the western coasts and.

It is a wide, slow stream, consisting of the Peruvian oceanic and Peruvian coastal currents, carrying relatively cold (from + 15 ° С to + 20 ° С) waters of temperate latitudes at a speed of up to 0.9 km / h; has a water flow of 15-20 million l³ / sec; gives rise South trade wind.

Alexander von Humboldt

German encyclopedist, physicist, meteorologist, geographer and naturalist, baron Alexander von Humboldt(German Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt; 1769-1859), who traveled widely in Latin America, discovered in 1812 that a cold deep current was moving from the polar regions towards the equator, cooling the air there.

In honor of this scientist, the Peruvian Current, which carries water along the South American coast, was also named the Humboldt Current.

Movement is life

Continuous movement is one of the characteristic features of the waters of the oceans.

Large-scale water masses that continuously move through the oceans are called ocean currents or sea currents. Each of the streams moves in a certain channel and direction, which is why they are sometimes called "rivers of the oceans": the width of the largest currents can be several hundred kilometers, and the length can reach more than one thousand kilometers.

Every ocean has a distinct cycle of currents. Interestingly, they do not move in a straight line, the direction of the currents is determined by the following factors: constant winds (trade winds) blowing on both sides of the equator from east to west; outlines of the continents; bottom topography; deflecting force of the earth's rotation.

sea ​​currents form vicious circles in the oceans. The movement of water in these circles in the Northern Hemisphere occurs clockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere - counterclockwise: the direction of the currents is due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis.

Warm, cold

Depending on the water temperature, ocean currents are divided into warm and cold. Warm waters arise near the equator, they carry warm waters through cold waters located near the poles and heat the air. Cold currents are directed from the polar regions to the equator, they, on the contrary, lead to a decrease in air temperature.

The largest warm sea currents include: Gulf Stream (Atlantic Ocean), Brazilian (Atlantic Ocean), Kuroshio (Pacific Ocean), Caribbean (Atlantic Ocean), North and South Equatorial Currents (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Oceans), Antilles (Atlantic Ocean ).

The largest cold sea currents include: Peruvian (Pacific Ocean), Canary (Atlantic Ocean), Oyasio or Kuril (Pacific Ocean), East Greenland (Atlantic Ocean), Labrador (Atlantic Ocean) and California (Pacific Ocean).

Cold and warm currents in some places come close to each other, most often in temperate latitudes. As a result of the formation of a region of convergence of waters with different physical properties, vortices arise. These phenomena in the ocean affect the air masses formed over the ocean, and then manifest themselves in weather conditions on land in temperate latitudes.

The influence of currents on the life of the planet

The role of ocean currents in the life of our planet cannot be overestimated, since the movement of water flows directly affects the Earth's climate, weather, coastal flora and fauna, and marine organisms. The ocean is often compared to a titanic thermal unit driven by the energy of the sun. This machine creates a continuous water exchange between the deep and surface layers of the ocean, affecting the life of marine life.

This process can be traced on the example of the Peruvian current. Thanks to the rise of deep waters, which raise dissolved phosphorus and nitrogen, animal and plant plankton successfully develop on the surface of the ocean, serving as food for small fish. She, in turn, falls prey to larger fish, birds and a variety of marine mammals, which, with such an abundance of food, settle here, making the region one of the most productive areas of the oceans. Water Characteristics of the Peruvian Current- very high biological activity; it is one of the main sites for fishing, anchovies and tuna, as well as for the collection of natural fertilizer - guano.

Peruvian Current: Curious Facts

• World ocean currents move at a speed of 1 to 9 km/h.
• Sea currents play a huge role in the life of our planet. They contribute to the interlatitudinal distribution of heat, water masses and living organisms, affect the circulation of the atmosphere and the Earth's climate. The study of the current regime is necessary for navigation and the proper organization of fishing.
• The currents of the World Ocean are a kind of giant air conditioner that distributes cold and warm air around the globe.
• At present, by international agreement, a bottle is thrown into the sea every day from special ships, in which a note is enclosed indicating the exact place (latitude and longitude) and time (year, day and month). And the "traveler" goes on a voyage, sometimes for a very long time. For example, a bottle thrown in October 1820 in the South Atlantic Ocean was found in August 1821 off the English Channel. Another, abandoned at the Cape Verde Islands (May 19, 1887), was caught off the Irish coast on March 17, 1890. One of the bottles in the Pacific Ocean made a particularly long journey: abandoned off the southern coast of South America. She was found in the bay of New Zealand. Thus, in 1,271 days, the bottle covered a distance of 20,000 km, i.e., an average of 9 km per day.
• By mapping the paths taken by the bottles, specialists are able to determine the trajectories and directions of currents. By noting the time when the bottle was thrown and found, one gets an idea of ​​the speed of the currents.
• Drift bottles, which are used to detect surface currents, are filled with some ballast sand and a postcard or special form. The finder is asked to report the place and time of its discovery. Every year, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) releases 10,000–20,000 drifting bottles into the sea off the US East Coast. As a rule, usually 10-11% of the cards invested in them are returned. The data obtained on drift were used to compile an atlas of surface ocean currents.
• Once every 12 years, a warm current approaches the coast of Peru, pushing the cold Peruvian Current. It is called " El Niño" (Spanish: El Niño - "Baby"), as it usually appears at Christmas. A sharp change in temperature leads to the mass death of all forms of marine organisms, which means that fish and fish-eating birds - producers of guano - die of starvation.