DMPQ: What is El Nino and southern oscillation and How it affects the Indian Monsoon?

El-nino is the classical phenomenon where warming of Pacific ocean takes place near the western coast of Peru and Equador. It occurs at every 3-4 years. It weakens the trade winds and changes in southern oscillation , thereby affects the rainfall pattern across the world.

Southern oscillation: Southern oscillation is the alternating of sea level pressure between the eastern and western hemisphere. The southern oscillation is measured by observing the pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin.

The effect of EL nino on Indian monsoon.

  • El Nino also leads to reversal of pressure difference between Indian and Pacific Ocean- known as Southern Oscillation.
  • El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weakens the Trade winds, consequently less push to the South Western Monsoon Winds from Mascarene High to India, and therefore poor monsoon.
  • Drought condition decreases the agriculture output, leads to food inflation.
  • Declined supply of cotton, oilseeds and sugarcane negatively affects the textile, edible oil and food processing industries respectively.

( Draw the diagram of ELnino on Indian Map)

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