In this unit, you will investigate the phenomena of El Niño and La Niņa
- two phases of a semi-regular cycle that geoscientists refer to as the El Niño
Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Although the effects of ENSO are global, the phenomena
itself is found in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
You will try to determine the characteristics of the phases of ENSO so you
can identify unknown years. Along the way, you will figure out how ENSO works
- for example, why clouds form in certain areas and
why the ocean surface is not uniform in temperature.
You'll investigate such questions as:
What is the cycle of conditions in the tropical Pacific?
Where are the clouds and storms during normal years? Why?
Where is it clear during normal years? Why?
Why are the winds and surface ocean currents as they are? Why does the
temperature of the ocean show the patterns that it does?
Can you integrate the storms, winds, currents, and clear areas into a consistent
and meaningful pattern?
Does the pattern and its variability tell you anything about ENSO?
The
topics are designed to function independently, so you can go through them in
any order. A good order, though, is down the pyramid (from phenomena to fundamental
principles) and back up.
Start by identifying the phenomena in topic 1.
Learn to recognize and relate patterns to uncover processes
in topics 2, 3, and 4.
Finally, integrate these patterns to explain the phenomena in topics 5
and 6.
In general, the activities within each topic are ordered with the same inquiry
strategy: identifying patterns, relating patterns, explaining patterns, and
integrating explanations.
At the end of every activity, you will submit your results to your instructor
via an online submission system. The results will consist of the following:
Visualizations created in the Visualization Environment; these files are
automatically saved as gifs (either graphics or animations)
Written descriptions and/or explanations about the visualizations, etc.
It is best if you write these in a word processing program since you will
need to copy them into text boxes in the online submission system. It is critical
that you create and save all work before submitting it so you have
backup copies!
Graphics, such as graphs. Note that all graphics must either be in gif,
jpg, or png format. (Those generated by the VGEE tools are automatically
saved in these formats)
Once you have submitted your results, a series of webpages will be created,
which you will be able to view. Your instructor will provide feedback by appending
comments to your webpages or by sending comments via email or in writing. Important
notes:
If you want to access your webpages at a later time but do not have the
URL, click on View Your Submissions under the El Niño Learner Guide
menu option. You'll get a list of activities that you have submitted so far,
from which you can select the ones that you want to view.
If you have submitted an activity but are not satisfied with it, you can
resubmit it by clicking on the submission link on the activity page. It is
very important that you inform your instructor of the resubmission so he or
she is sure to review it. (If the instructor reviewed the original one, he
or she will not know that a new one has been submitted unless you tell him
or her!)
Note that the online submission system is password protected. You will
be asked to select a password when you first access the system. An email will
be sent to you with the password; be sure to keep it for future reference. If
you ever need to request your password, send
us email.
The Tips & Examples menu item has links to:
Tips for the activities within each topic. You can read through them on
their own or access the related ones from within each activity.
A sample activity write-up written by an undergraduate student in an Introduction
to Meteorology course.
The
topics are designed to function independently, so you can go through them in
any order. A good order, though, is down the pyramid (from phenomena to fundamental
principles) and back up.