Jacob Bjerknes: Ocean-Atmosphere Connection

Jacob Bjerknes: Ocean-Atmosphere Connection

In 1969, meteorologist Jacob Bjerknes realized that ocean temperatures and atmospheric winds directly drive each other.

Chapter 1

How Peruvian fishermen discovered El Niño

Chapter 2

The physical engine of the Pacific

Chapter 3

The global domino effect of weather

Chapter 4

The cool sibling and the ENSO cycle

Chapter 5

Watching the ocean from space and sea

Ch 1 · How Peruvian fishermen discovered El Niño
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diego Jacob Bjerknes connects ocean to air

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diego The Christmas arrival of warm waters

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diego Gilbert Walker and the atmospheric seesaw

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diego The devastating 1982 super El Niño

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diego The Discovery of El Niño

When the ocean gets warm, the anchovies go / (Yeah, El Niño’s running the show!)

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How Peruvian fishermen discovered El Niño
BETA

diego Track the warming ocean currents to learn how Peruvian fishermen first discovered El Niño.

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Jacob Bjerknes connects ocean to air

diego In 1969, meteorologist Jacob Bjerknes realized that ocean temperatures and atmospheric winds directly drive each other.

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Fun Fact

Naming the current: Peruvian fishers named El Niño after the Christ Child because the warming usually peaked around December.

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Gilbert Walker and the atmospheric seesaw

diego In the 1920s, British mathematician Gilbert Walker discovered a massive atmospheric pressure connection across the Pacific.

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Glossary
el niño (noun)
A periodic warming of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific. Peruvian fishers in the seventeenth century first observed the warm current disrupting their annual anchovy harvests.

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Quiz

What acronym did scientists create to combine El Niño and the Southern Oscillation?

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Gossip

Which weather extreme would you rather experience?

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Quiz

Why did Peruvian fishermen dislike the warm waters of El Niño?

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Quiz

In what body of water does the El Niño phenomenon primarily originate?

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Quiz

Which extreme El Niño event in the 20th century first caught scientists completely off guard, leading to better ocean monitoring?

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Quiz

In which century did Peruvian fishermen first record the warm ocean current they called El Niño?

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Quiz

Which scientist in 1969 proved that ocean temperatures and wind patterns work together to cause El Niño?

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Quiz

What does the Spanish phrase 'El Niño' literally mean in the context of its discovery?

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Quiz

Which British mathematician discovered the Southern Oscillation pressure seesaw in the 1920s?

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