A: The IRI outreach orogram has an excellent background on El Niño and La Niña. There are several other very good websites that have helpful information about El Niño as well. Some of these sites are listed below.
1. http://iri.columbia.edu/climate/ENSO
The El Niño section of our own IRI homepage.
You will find information about what El Niño is, how it is monitored,
its impacts on various portions of the world, and its effects upon society.
You wil also find current information on El Niño conditions.
2. http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/tao/elnino/nino-home.html
The El Niño Theme Page at the Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory (PMEL). This page
includes a nice "frequently asked questions" (FAQ) section.
3. http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/ENSO/
The ENSO page of the U.S. Climate Diagnostics Center
(CDC).
4. http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/levelthree/analclim/analclim.htm
The climate education page at the Austrailian Bureau
of Meteorology (BOM). The
"Climate Variability and El Niño" link contains very good information.
5. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/
The El Niño/La Niña page at the U.S. Climate
Prediction Center (CPC).
6. http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/edu.html
The El Niño education page of the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This page offers excellent educational material for K-12 teachers and their
students.
There is dozens of books written about this subject, but
"Currents of Change:
Impacts of El Niño and La Niña on Climate and Society"
by Michael Glantz is particularly well written and helps to put the eveolving
understanding of El Niño into prespective.
--Michael Bell