El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a coupled ocean–atmosphere phenomenon in the tropical Pacific characterized by quasi-periodic fluctuations between warm (El Niño), cold (La Niña), and neutral phases. It arises from interactions among equatorial Pacific sea-surface temperatures, trade winds, and the Walker circulation, producing large-scale anomalies in convection, thermocline depth, and surface pressure, notably the Southern Oscillation index. ENSO modulates global atmospheric circulation, altering precipitation, temperature, and storm tracks on interannual timescales, and serves as a key source of seasonal-to-interannual climate variability and predictability in climate diagnostics and modeling.
The warming El Niño weather phenomenon could form later this year, potentially pushing global temperatures to record heights.
Environment
Mar 2, 2026
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Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), in collaboration with international partners, have shown that ocean temperature patterns help limit the global spread of droughts. Published in Communications ...
Environment
Feb 23, 2026
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Each year, the world's leading climate scientists evaluate the most critical evidence on how our planet is changing. Their assessments draw heavily on data from Earth-observing satellites—and the latest report delivers a ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 19, 2026
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Cattle auctions aren't often all-night affairs. But in Texas Lake Country in June 2022, ranchers facing dwindling water supplies and dried out pastures amid a worsening drought sold off more than 4,000 animals in an auction ...
Environment
Feb 15, 2026
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Scientists at the University of Southampton have uncovered evidence from ancient rocks that Earth's climate continued to fluctuate during its most extreme ice age—known as Snowball Earth. During the Cryogenian Period, between ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 5, 2026
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Some tropical land regions may warm more dramatically than previously predicted, as climate change progresses, according to a new CU Boulder study that looks millions of years into Earth's past. Using lake sediments from ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 2, 2026
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When it comes to global warming and climate change, we often hear news stories about tipping points where Earth's systems shift into a new and dangerous state. One such may have been reached in the year 2000 that caused tropical ...
Stronger El Niño events are more likely when springtime surface waters in the western Pacific Ocean become unusually salty, a new study in Geophysical Research Letters suggests. Traditionally, scientists have focused on temperature ...
La Niña—a climate phenomenon characterized by unusually cool sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean—can persist for multiple years, exerting significant climate impacts worldwide. In recent ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 22, 2026
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Water extremes such as droughts and floods have a huge impact on communities, ecosystems, and economies. Researchers with The University of Texas at Austin have turned their attention to tracking these extremes across Earth ...
Earth Sciences
Jan 12, 2026
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