Comprehensive and up-to-date information on Earth’s most dominant year-to-year climate variation The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the Pacific Ocean has major worldwide social and economic consequences through its global scale effects on atmospheric and oceanic circulation, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and other natural systems. Ongoing climate change is projected to significantly alter ENSO's dynamics and impacts. El Niño Southern Oscillation in a Changing Climate presents the latest theories, models, and observations, and explores the challenges of forecasting ENSO as the climate continues to change. Volume highlights include: Historical background on ENSO and its societal consequences Review of key El Niño (ENSO warm phase) and La Niña (ENSO cold phase) characteristics Mathematical description of the underlying physical processes that generate ENSO variations Conceptual framework for understanding ENSO changes on decadal and longer time scales, including the response to greenhouse gas forcing ENSO impacts on extreme ocean, weather, and climate events, including tropical cyclones, and how ENSO affects fisheries and the global carbon cycle Advances in modeling, paleo-reconstructions, and operational climate forecasting Future projections of ENSO and its impacts Factors influencing ENSO events, such as inter-basin climate interactions and volcanic eruptions The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals. Find out more about this book from this Q&A with the editors.

Explains simply what El Niño is, how it affects global weather patterns, and why all of us should be concerned.

Culture Bound is designed to give language teachers a basis for introducing a cultural component into their teaching. The articles give a perspective on how language and culture interact and explore in particular the difference between interacting with another culture and entering it: language students are encouraged to understand the new culture without necessarily embracing it. This selection brings together representative practical and theoretical material written by a variety of scholars and teachers in the field. The essays are organized under three headings: language, thought, and culture; cultural differences and similarities; and classroom applications. The collection as a whole brings both breadth and depth to a topic that has been strangely neglected despite its recognized importance.

El Nino and the Southern Oscillation is by far the most striking phenomenon caused by the interplay of ocean and atmosphere. It can be explained neither in strictly oceanographic nor strictly meteorological terms. This volume provides a brief history of the subject, summarizes the oceanographic and meteorological observations and theories, and discusses the recent advances in computer modeling studies of the phenomenon. - Includes a comprehensive and up-to-date research survey - Discusses in detail sophisticated computer models - Provides a clear exposition of the major problems which prevent more accurate predictions of El Nino

Cesar Caviedes provides a comprehensive historical account of El Nino, the fascinating and disruptive weather phenomenon that has affected weather cycles all over the globe for thousands of years. Combining scientific accuracy with readable presentation, he brings together all existing information, references and clues about past El Nino occurrences and their impact on political, military, social, economic and environmental history. This sweeping demonstration of the impact of climatic fluctuation on human history should be fascinating to the scientific community as well as to the general public.

Coral reefs are the largest landforms built by plants and animals. Their study therefore incorporates a wide range of disciplines. This encyclopedia approaches coral reefs from an earth science perspective, concentrating especially on modern reefs. Currently coral reefs are under high stress, most prominently from climate change with changes to water temperature, sea level and ocean acidification particularly damaging. Modern reefs have evolved through the massive environmental changes of the Quaternary with long periods of exposure during glacially lowered sea level periods and short periods of interglacial growth. The entries in this encyclopedia condense the large amount of work carried out since Charles Darwin first attempted to understand reef evolution. Leading authorities from many countries have contributed to the entries covering areas of geology, geography and ecology, providing comprehensive access to the most up-to-date research on the structure, form and processes operating on Quaternary coral reefs.

This volume is based on a meeting of researchers, forecasters, and users of La Nina forecasts, at the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research. La Nina results from air-sea interaction that reduces the surface seatemperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, affecting global weather patterns. While people around the globe have become familiar with El Nino - a large-scale warming of surface water that expands to cover the tropics - and its impacts, its counterpart, La Nina, is not so well known. Researchers at this La Nina Summit indicated that La Nina events can be as devastating as those of El Nino. The overriding purpose of the summit was to draw attention to the importance of improving understanding of the La Nina phenomenon and what societies need to know in order to prepare for La Nina's impacts.