UKC

Hi all,

Just a quick one. I am a bit confused as to whether ENSO causes a net release of heat from the ocean to the atmosphere? I assumed El Nino pumped heat out that in the main did not re-enter the ocean. However I overheard someone recently explaining that La Nina counteracts this and that there is no net released in heat after the ENSO oscillation as completed.

Anyone able to help me out here?

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

I think that's basically right. El Nino releases heat to the atmosphere and La Nina absorbs heat compared to neutral conditions. This seems logical as the oceans don't generate any heat so any of the oceanic oscillations will simply be transferring varying amounts of heat with no net loss or gain over the long run. But it's worth remembering that ENSO is a quasi-periodic oscillation so an El Nino will not necessarily be followed immediately by a La Nina of similar strength.

In reply to alanw:
Thanks for clarifying.

You see I thought the ocean would absorb heat incident on it from the sun and then release a percentage of said heat during El Nino. I didn't expect there to be a reason for La Nina to encourage the ocean to reabsorb said heat.

In reply to A Longleat Boulderer:

To be honest, I'm a bit unsure of using the terms 'absorb' and 'release', I suspect a real expert might not be too impressed by them. What I do know is that the oceanic oscillations and circulations are complex mixtures of various types of heat flows and transfers with the atmosphere that are still the subject of much research. I will stand by the 'quasi-periodic' bit which makes it difficult to predict despite the fact that the computer models are able to replicate the behaviour very well. Also, we seem to be heading for a big El Nino.

In reply to alanw:

Yeah fair enough, makes sense. A really interesting topic regardless!