Abstract

The past year has featured an active, warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, considered historically "strong". El Niño developed in early summer 2023, peaked in November, and persisted through spring 2024, with a likely transition to ENSO Neutral and then La Niña conditions projected in the next several months. This activity will highlight how current data is used to study ENSO and will explore atmospheric and ocean conditions associated with El Niño and La Niña through usage of the American Meteorological Society's Project Atmosphere module, including the El Niño/La Niña Slide Chart, and recent course investigations. The activity will also compare typical El Nino teleconnections across the U.S. with winter 2023-24 temperature and precipitation anomalies. The major outcomes are (1) Explain inter-annual climate variability as exemplified by El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and (2) Describe local, regional, and global impacts or teleconnections of El Niño and La Niña.

The AMS/NOAA Project Atmosphere course has been running for 30 years, and provides a detailed study of atmospheric science, weather forecasting, and climate science. The course includes several weeks of online study, a residence workshop, and 13 modules for use in post-course peer training and with students.

Context

Dave Curry has used the AMS/ENSO slide tools with middle school teachers and students for many years. It is an extremely effective way to cover these topics. Suitable for grades four and up, the El Niño/La Niña Slide Charts and associated student problem sets are used in a multi-day weather and climate activity. Our target audience will be K-12 and introductory college course instructors for non majors or students who are beginning their courses of study in a Geoscience related major. Classroom students use the sliders to make the complex and hard-to-understand meteorological conditions more concrete and understandable using physical manipulatives that guide students through questions about sea-surface temperatures, atmospheric conditions, and teleconnections that occur in distant areas of the globe.

Why It Works

This activity uses a unique hands-on tool, the El Niño/La Niña Slide Chart, designed to help educators and students visualize the atmospheric and oceanic changes occurring during different ENSO phases. It also highlights multiple current data sources, including the NOAA ENSO Diagnostic Discussion, NOAA/PMEL TAO/TRITON data, and sea-surface temperature anomalies, for following and understanding ENSO, which can be readily used in the classroom.