TOGA-TAO and the 1991–93 El Niño Southern Oscillation Event

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Author

Michael J. McPhaden | Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, WA, USA

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First Paragraph

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon is an interannual perturbation of the climate system characterized by aperiodic weakening of the tradewinds and warming of the surface layers in the equatorial Pacific Ocean every 4–7 years. The impacts of ENSO are felt worldwide through disruption of the atmospheric general circulation and associated global weather patterns (Rasmusson and Wallace, 1983; Ropelewski and Halpert, 1987). ENSO also affects the ecosystem dynamics in the Pacific Ocean, particularly the higher trophic levels of the food chain on which fisheries depend (Barber and Chavez, 1983).

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Full Article

3.42 MB pdf

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Citation

McPhaden, M.J. 1993. TOGA-TAO and the 1991–93 El Niño Southern Oscillation Event. Oceanography 6(2):36–44, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1993.12.

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