La Niña Continues in Pacific

The current state of this season's La Nina is shown in this Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite image of the Pacific Ocean, based on the average of 10 days of data centered on Dec. 26, 2010. The new image depicts places where the Pacific sea-surface height is higher (warmer) than normal as yellow and red, while places where the sea surface is lower (cooler) than normal are shown in blue and purple. Green indicates near-normal conditions. Sea-surface height is an indicator of how much of the sun's heat is stored in the upper ocean. The La Nina cool waters stretch from the eastern to the central Pacific Ocean.

Image credit: NASA JPL Ocean Surface Topography Team