La
Niña is characterized by unusually cold ocean temperatures
in the equatorial Pacific.
El
Niño is characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatues
in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean.
These are graphics of the
Reynolds Sea Surface Temperature (SST) analysis from the
National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)
for the entire Pacific Ocean (70N to 70S).
Also see plots of the
Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies (the amount that the temperature differs
from the normal value for the month).
Also available is a graph of sea surface temperature for the entire
Pacific Ocean.
Graphics are provided by the TAO
project and created by Dai McClurg.
You can also see animations
of the Reynolds SST and TAO
buoy SST from the TAO
realtime data page.