Fig. 2: Extreme El Niño-like shift in the circulation of the equatorial Pacific Ocean in six nuclear war simulations.
From: Nuclear Niño response observed in simulations of nuclear war scenarios
Three-month running mean of the a equatorial Pacific Ocean zonal wind stress anomaly (130°E–120°W, 5°S–5°N) (102 N m−2), b Niño3.4 region (5°N–5°S, 170°W–120°W) SST anomalies relative to global tropical SSTs (20°N–20°S), c zonal sea surface height difference between tropical (5°S–5°N) east (150°W–90°W) and west Pacific (140°E–170°W) (cm), d vertical velocity in the top 100 m layer of the equatorial Pacific (5°S–5°N, 180°W–90°W) for all nuclear war scenarios as simulated in CESM-WACCM4, where positive values indicate upwelling. Gray shading indicates ±1 standard deviation from the model climatological mean.
