Recent Warming Event in the Pacific May be an El Nino

A recent anomalous warming event in the tropical Pacific consist of a series of intraseasonal episodes, observations from four spaceborne sensors and simulation by an ocean general circulation model show. Four distinct groups of equatorial westerly wind anomalies near the date line were observed by scatterometer. Anomalous integrated water vapor was observed by a microwave radiometer. To study the warming event, the anomalous sea level and sea surface temperature were simulated with an ocean general circulation model forced by realistic winds.