Super El Niño

About this episode

This episode discusses oceanic surface temperatures, trade winds, and their impact on global climate change.

This week we talk about oceanic surface temperatures, trade winds, and global climate change. We also discuss the Polar Jet Stream, hurricanes, and climate models. Recommended Book: Kleptopia by Tom Burgis Transcript Under normal circumstances, the Pacific Ocean’s average surface temperature, the distribution of heat across its vast expanse, is moderated by trade winds that blow east to west along the equator, which help move warm water from South America over toward Asia. Those winds are called trade winds because, back during the European age of Exploration, they helped ships from Europe head west toward Asia and the Americas. And these winds form in part because of the Earth’s rotation, the Coriolis effect funneling air toward the equator, where it is then more concentrated and thus potent, which is useful if you’re trying to move a ship with sails, but also serves the purpose of moving warm water from one part of the ocean to another part of the ocean. As those warmer surface waters are shifted from the Americas to Asia, water is pulled up to the surface from lower down in the ocean as part of a process called upwelling. This process results in cooler temperatures on the…

People in this episode

Host: Colin Wright

Topics covered

• oceanic surface temperatures
• trade winds
• global climate change
• Polar Jet Stream
• hurricanes
• climate models

Keywords

• El Niño
• climate change
• ocean temperatures
• trade winds
• hurricanes
• climate models
• upwelling

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Kleptopia

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