The animations and images from this site show a combined perspective of the El Nino induced change in the sea surface topography as viewed from space. The imagery is from the NASA TOPEX radar altimetry satellite and sea surface temperature observed by NOAA's AVHRR sensor for the period from January 1997 to March 1998. These reveal many aspects of sea surface topography, including a sea level rise along the Equator in the eastern Pacific, the weakening of the Trade Winds across the Pacific Ocean and the associated increase in sea surface temperature, and the convergence of the surface wind field into the anomalous warm water regions indicating a continued strengthening of this El Nino event. The sea temperature below the surface also shows how the thermocline (the boundary between warm and cold sea water at 20 degrees Celcius) is flattened out by El Nino.
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