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| El Niño – Southern Oscillation |
| Overview |
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Underlying Science El Niño- Southern oscillation (ENSO) cycles occur every few years. During these events, weather patterns around the world are disrupted, the human and economic tolls from extreme droughts and floods can be great. ENSO events affect rainfall patterns—leading to droughts in some places and extraordinary rainfall in others. Astronauts track indicators of drought such as increased incidence of wildfires and drops in the levels of lakes and reservoirs. Where rainfall increases, they observe floods and vegetation greening. The ISS crews will collect comparative photographs over parts of the world that were hardest hit by precipitation anomalies associated with the 1997-1998 El Niño. These new observations will build on the unprecedented data on El Niño-related floods and droughts that was collected by astronauts living on Mir. Application Imagery from space provides regional context for local events like floods or fires. The presence of smoke, the boundaries of smoke palls, and lake level fluctuations can be compiled for a regional and global assessment of El Niño impact. Rising and falling water levels in lakes, reservoirs and rivers, and vegetation characteristics can be monitored repeatedly to determine responses and rates of response to extreme weather events. Reference Evans, C.A.; Robinson, J.A.; Wilkinson, M.J.; Runco, S.; Dickerson, P.W.; Amsbury, D.L.; and Lulla, K.P.; 2000. The 1997-1998 El Niño: Images of floods and drought, in Dynamic Earth Environments: Remote Sensing Observations from Shuttle-Mir Missions. K. Lulla and L. Desinov (eds); John Wiley & sons, New York, pp. 61-76. |
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