Paleo Slide Set: Coral Paleoclimatology:Natural Record of Climate change for High School Student
Global effects ("teleconnections") of ENSO warm events.

Other changes occur across the Pacific during an El Niņo. As the warm water moves eastward towards the central 
Pacific, the westward descending cool, dry air brings high pressure, drought conditions and often wild fires to Indonesia. The low pressure zone usually located over Indonesia, shifts to the mid-Pacific. This region of low pressure coupled with the rising moist air above the warm water pool, greatly increases rainfall to the mid-Pacific. This shifting of the pressure zones is known as the Southern Oscillation.
The impacts of El Niņo, extend far beyond the South American coast and the Indonesian interior. As this map shows, 
El Niņo events produce ripples of change throughout the world's climate system; ripples that occur far away but are 
related are known as teleconnection. Teleconnections stretch across the globe, from flooding in the Peruvian Andes 
and the southeastern United States, to severe drought in Indonesia and central India, to voracious wildfires that 
hurtle across the forests and brush of eastern Australia.

An El Niņo ends as the Pacific waters become warmer and the water at the equator flows from west to east and also 
towards the poles. Gradually, this flow decreases the pool of warm water at the equator, which leads to intensification 
of the tradewinds and an eventual return to normal conditions. 

Photo Credits:
Thomas.G. Andrews 
NOAA Paleoclimatology Program