Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Recently, El Nino has become a hot topic of conversation. The reason is, this climate phenomenon triggers drought and extreme weather which has quite severe impacts in Indonesia.
In fact, the United States Space Agency (NASA) also commented on the El Nino phenomenon and provided an explanation. According to NASA, El Nino that occurs in Indonesia is different from what occurs in other regions.
NASA’s monitoring is based on data from a joint US-European satellite named ‘Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich’. This satellite is used by NASA researchers to record sea level levels and compare this year’s El Nino with those that occurred in the past.
Quoted from the official NASA website, Thursday (26/10/2023), every El Nino is not the same. The impact can vary. US-European satellites are used to anticipate the impact of El Nino on a global scale, by monitoring changes in sea level heights in the Pacific Ocean.
“Every El Niño is a little different,” said Josh Willis, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, quoted from the NASA website, Thursday (26/10/2023).
NASA explains that water will expand when the temperature is high. So, sea levels tend to be higher when the water is warm.
El Nino itself is a phenomenon whose characteristics are determined by sea water levels being higher than normal, and ocean temperatures being warmer than normal at the Pacific equator. This condition will then spread poleward along the US west coast.
“El Nino can cause wetter conditions in the southwestern US region, and drought to areas in the western Pacific, including Indonesia,” quoted from the NASA website.
Furthermore, it was stated that this year’s El Nino was still developing. However, researchers are still looking to the past for clues as to how this happened.
There have been two extreme El Niños that have occurred in the last 30 years. First in 1997 to 1998, then from 2015 to 2016. Both resulted in changes in global air and ocean temperatures, wind weather and rain patterns, and ocean aura levels.
In October 1997 and 2015, many areas in the central and eastern Pacific had water levels 18cm higher than normal conditions. This year, water levels are around 5-8cm above normal.
The two El Niños that occurred in the past both experienced peaks in November to early December. So, NASA predicts that this year the peak of El Nino will continue to increase until the end of the year.
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