Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Pamela Grothe has had the results of a study she co-authored published in several scientific journals and websites, as well as Forbes. According to the study, originally published in Geophysical Research Letters, El Niño swings have intensified to 25% stronger in the Industrial Age. Grothe performed the study under Kim Cobb, principal investigator and professor in Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. As the study’s first author, Grothe compared temperature-dependent chemical deposits on coral that was recently extracted to that of older coral records showing relevant sea surface temperatures from the past 7,000 years. Then, with the assistance of Georgia Tech collaborators and other partner research institutions, she identified patterns in the El Niño Southern Oscillation, swings of heating and cooling equatorial Pacific waters that cause El Niños and La Niñas to form every few years.
New and Strange Climate Pattern Includes More Violent El Nino Swings (SciTechDaily)
El Nino seeing extreme swings in the industrial age (Space Daily)
Has El Nino Become More Intense In The Industrial Age? (Forbes)