{"id":10593,"date":"2024-04-03T12:08:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T16:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/how-nasa-spotted-el-nino-changing-the-saltiness-of-coastal-waters\/"},"modified":"2024-04-03T12:08:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T16:08:01","slug":"how-nasa-spotted-el-nino-changing-the-saltiness-of-coastal-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/how-nasa-spotted-el-nino-changing-the-saltiness-of-coastal-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"How NASA Spotted El Ni\u00f1o Changing the Saltiness of Coastal Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"

How NASA Spotted El Ni\u00f1o Changing the Saltiness of Coastal Waters<\/h2>\n

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\"A<\/figure>
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Rivers can flush rainwater over hundreds of miles to the sea, changing the makeup of coastal waters in ways that scientists are still discovering. In this satellite image from December 2023, a large, sediment-rich plume from the Mississippi River spreads down the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas following winter rains.<\/div>\n
NASA\/OB.DAAC<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

New findings have revealed a coastal realm highly sensitive to changes in runoff and rainfall on land.<\/em><\/p>\n

After helping stoke record heat in 2023 and drenching major swaths of the United States this winter, the current El Ni\u00f1o is losing steam this spring. Scientists have observed<\/a> another way that the climate phenomenon can leave its mark on the planet: altering the chemistry of coastal waters.<\/p>\n

A team at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California used satellite observations to track the dissolved salt content, or salinity<\/a>, of the global ocean surface for a decade, from 2011 to 2022. At the sea surface, salinity patterns can tell us a lot about how freshwater falls, flows, and evaporates between the land, ocean, and atmosphere \u2013 a process known as the water cycle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The JPL team showed that year-to-year-variations in salinity near coastlines strongly correlate with El Ni\u00f1o Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the collective term for El Ni\u00f1o and its counterpart, La Ni\u00f1a. ENSO affects weather around the world in contrasting ways<\/a>. El Ni\u00f1o, linked to warmer-than-average ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, can lead to more rain and snowfall than normal in the southwestern U.S., as well as drought in Indonesia. These patterns are somewhat reversed during La Ni\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

During the exceptional El Ni\u00f1o event of 2015, for example, the scientists traced a particularly distinct global water cycle effect: Less precipitation over land led to a decrease in river discharge on average, which in turn led to notably higher salinity levels in areas as far as 125 miles (200 kilometers) from shore.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/figure>
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Instruments in space can track how salinity varies by region and season. Using NASA satellite data, this map shows how monsoon rains and freshwater flowing into the Bay of Bengal keep it far less salty than the Arabian Sea to the west. (Areas of low and high salinity are shown in blue and yellow, respectively.)<\/div>\n
NASA\u2019s Scientific Visualization Studio<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
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\"A<\/figure>
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The Amazon River delivers millions of gallons of water to the ocean every second \u2013 enough to change global average surface salinity. A plume of low salinity water is shown here in dark blue, drifting away from the river mouth on ocean currents. The blue blob to the northwest is the Orinoco River plume.<\/div>\n
NASA\u2019s Scientific Visualization Studio<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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