El Niño and La Niña Explained

Context for Use: 

This video is helpful to show students once they have a basic introduction to El Nino and La Nina. The visualization helps them see the motion of ocean water on the surface and at depth. The video is less than two minutes in length, which will keep the attention of students.

Another related NOAA video is Observing El Nino, also 2 minutes in length with a transcript and available for download.

NOAA's climate.gov page also has an excellent collection of resources for El Nino & La Nina (El Nino-Southern Oscillation), including the current status and national and global impacts.

Supporting NOAA links include:

 

Submitted 8 years 7 months ago by Laura Guertin.
Recommended Grade: 
Middle School
High School
Description: 

This video is from the NOAA Ocean Today collection. The video explains and shows the interaction between the trade winds, surface ocean movement, jet stream, and the climatic impacts. What this video shows that is not found in other videos is a map view and cross sectional view of the Pacific Ocean basin, demonstrating the trade winds blowing the warm water to the western Pacific at the same time the upwelling of the colder water is occurring in the eastern Pacific. The NOAA website has a transcript of the video.

atmosphere - air
hydrosphere - water