NASA Studies El Nino Using 30 Years of Earth Observations From
Space You may wonder how space and El Niño are related. NASA has
invested substantial national resources in measuring key
variables in our climate system, among them: temperature, water
vapor, wind and radiative flux. These measurements are helping
us understand how our climate system works. El Niño is the most
prominent example of atmosphere and ocean coupling on our
planet, involving wind stress driving ocean currents, sea-
surface temperatures driving rainfall changes, and the heat
liberated by the rainfall, in turn, driving the winds. It's one
of Nature's never ending dances. On Friday, Mar. 19, 2010, at 3
p.m. EDT, physical scientist Pete Robertson of NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., answered your questions
about El Niño and climate variability. More About El Niño There
are frequently systematic changes in our weather patterns
related to El Niño. In North America, El NiNiñoo creates warmer-
than-average winters in the up