La Niña In Progress

La Niña is an occurrence of unusually cold water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator (the precise area affected is outlined in black in the image above). La Niña and its opposite, El Niño, are linked to seesaw variations in air pressure over the tropical Pacific and affect weather patterns across the globe. NASA monitors developing El Ni&ntidle;o and La Niña events by observing sea surface temperatures. This image compares the water temperatures observed in late January 2006 to long-term average conditions for that time of year. The recent data were collected by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E). Red shows where sea surface temperatures are warmer than normal and blue where they are colder than normal.

This image originally appeared in the NASA Earth Observatory story La Niña In Progress.

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Chelle Gentemann and Frank Wentz, Remote Sensing Systems.

Published February 9, 2006
Data acquired January 25 - February 1, 2006

Source:: Aqua > AMSR-E