All posts tagged: climate models

El Nino Is Brewing Again: Should India Brace For A Deficient Monsoon In 2026? | India News

El Nino Is Brewing Again: Should India Brace For A Deficient Monsoon In 2026? | India News

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Last Updated:March 13, 2026, 17:35 IST What is worrying meteorologists is not just the possibility of El Nino itself, but how strong it could become. El Nino occurs when surface waters in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean warm unusually (PTI) Scientists are increasingly seeing early signals that El Nino conditions could develop in 2026, and possibly strengthen as the year progresses. According to recent reports, climate models suggest that the current La Nina phase in the Pacific Ocean is weakening, with ocean–atmosphere patterns shifting towards neutral conditions before potentially flipping to El Nino by mid-year. Forecasts from global weather agencies indicate roughly a 60 per cent chance of El Nino emerging between June and August, with the probability rising further toward the latter half of the year. What is worrying meteorologists is not just the possibility of El Nino itself, but how strong it could become. India is already seeing an intense summer. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) and international climate centres are closely monitoring the Pacific because some model projections indicate the event …

NASA’s SWOT Satellite Reveals Big Impact of Small Ocean Currents and Waves in n Marine Ecosystems

NASA’s SWOT Satellite Reveals Big Impact of Small Ocean Currents and Waves in n Marine Ecosystems

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Small-scale ocean features once overlooked are now seen as powerful forces shaping Earth’s climate and marine life. Developed in association with the French space agency CNES, the SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite caught two-dimensional images of submesoscale waves and eddies about a mile across in a recent NASA-led study. Now clearly seen in before-unheard-of clarity, these currents are essential in moving carbon, nutrients, and heat across the ocean. The high-resolution data of the satellite provides the most comprehensive picture yet of how small-scale vertical currents affect the ecosystems and climatic systems of the world. NASA SWOT Satellite Discovers Vertical Ocean Currents Driving Climate and Ecosystem Change As per a recent report from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SWOT revealed how vertical ocean circulation, previously too fine for satellite observation but too broad for ship-based tools, drives exchanges between ocean depths and the atmosphere. “Vertical currents can bring heat from deep layers to the surface, warming the atmosphere,” notes oceanographer Matthew Archer in a statement. SWOT tracked a submesoscale eddy in the Pacific’s Kuroshio Current …

Water on Ancient Mars? New Study Challenges the Cold Planet Theory

Water on Ancient Mars? New Study Challenges the Cold Planet Theory

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Despite being a vast and inhospitable planet today, scientists believe Mars, the Red Planet, used to look much like Earth, the Blue Planet. Over the last four years, NASA’s Perseverance rover has wandered across an area of Mars where researchers believe a powerful river once poured into a crater, forming a sizable delta. According to computer models, ancient Mars most likely had frequent snowfall and rain, which shaped the enormous networks of lakes and river basins. In the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, a recent study found that the distribution of these land characteristics is more consistent with precipitation models than with only the consequences of melting ice caps. Investigating Early Martian Climate Through Modeling The researchers published their findings April 21 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. According to the research by geologists at the University of Colorado in Boulder, our planetary neighbour, on average 140 million miles away in space, was warm and wet billions of years ago. This challenges a long-held belief that early Mars was mostly cold and icy. However, there’s a …

Indian Ocean Study Reveals Bay of Bengal Defies Ekman’s Wind-Driven Current Theory

Indian Ocean Study Reveals Bay of Bengal Defies Ekman’s Wind-Driven Current Theory

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A study published in Science Advances has identified a significant anomaly to Vagn Walfrid Ekman’s widely-accepted theory on wind-driven ocean currents. Conducted by a team of researchers from NOAA, the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services and the University of Zagreb, the study focused on the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. Data spanning several years from a buoy stationed off India’s eastern coast was examined, revealing that ocean currents in this region deflect leftward, contradicting the theory’s predictions for the Northern Hemisphere. Ekman’s Theory and Its Longstanding Influence The Ekman theory, developed in 1905 by Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman, asserts that surface ocean currents are deflected 45 degrees to the right of wind direction in the Northern Hemisphere due to the Coriolis force. Successive layers beneath the surface exhibit similar patterns, forming the Ekman spiral. This mechanism, though robust, assumes idealised conditions, including uniform ocean depth and density. Variations such as those observed in the Bay of Bengal highlight its limitations. Findings from the Bay of Bengal As per the study, …

Indian Ocean Warming Threatens Severe Cyclones, Heavy Rainfall And Marine Ecosystems: Study

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Last Updated: May 01, 2024, 00:29 IST Pune (Poona) [Poona], India Two sperm whales are seen swimming on the Indian Ocean surface during the Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise expedition at the Saya de Malha Bank within the Mascarene Plateau, Mauritius March 14, 2021. (Reuters) Study warns of severe cyclones, heavy rainfall, and marine heatwaves in Indian Ocean due to warming, impacting coastal livelihoods and marine ecosystems A recent study has sounded a stark warning about the warming of the Indian Ocean, predicting that it will worsen cyclones, heavy rainfall events, and lead the world’s third-largest water body into a near-permanent heatwave state. Led by Roxy Mathew Koll of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, the study underlines that the Indian Ocean and its surrounding nations are at the highest risk of natural disasters. With 40 countries bordering the ocean, housing a third of the global population, changes in the region’s climate carry significant societal and economic implications. What does the future Indian Ocean look like?1/ The warming in the Indian Ocean was strongest during …