Animation Controls

This is a view of the current El Nino / La Nina evolving in the tropical Pacific Ocean. You begin by looking north, across the equator from a vantage point above the ocean. As the animation runs forward, your viewpoint shifts a few degrees clockwise from north. The colored vertical plane shows the ocean temperature at the Equator from the sea surface down to a depth of 500m. The colored horizontal plane shows the sea surface temperature. The sea surface winds are the light blue vectors. The Ocean currents from the surface to 300m depth are shown by the white vectors. The transparent surface is the 20°C isotherm (water which has the temperature 20°C). The animation frames show monthly values for the last 60 months. All of these data come from the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) network of moored ocean buoys in Equatorial Pacific.