The Institute on Climate and Planets (ICP) at Bronx Science is a division of The Goddard Institute for Space Studies of NASA at The Bronx High School of Science. The ICP Academy was made possible by a $25,000 grant, written by Mr. Mitch Fox (teacher/researcher), with major assistance from Dr. Ron Miller, (and lets not forget carolyn Harris)and awarded by NASA GISS. The Minority University SPace Interdisciplinary Network (MUSPIN) has provided our internet connection. MUSPIN provided a partial T1 connection for the school from 1996-1998. MUSPIN in conjunction with CABLEVISION is now providing the school with a connection roughly equivalent to a 3x a T2 from 1998-2001. MUSPIN, has also provided Bronx Science with an industry standard weather station to be part of a MUSPIN /National Weather Service Regional Microclimate Study called the New York City Weather Project. 

     The ICP is devoted to studying anomalies in Ocean-Atmosphere interaction such as El Niņo and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The objective is to determine the effects of ENSO on precipitation, winds, and storm tracks (Jet stream steering) of North America, especially the eastern U.S. An El Niņo event is basically indicated by the unusual warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru and Chile. This warming occurs due to a breakdown in the normally strong easterly trade wind circulation which tends to push warmer waters westward piling it up there in the Western Pacific near Australia. When a warm eastwardly flowing current results from the weakening of the easterly Trades through a region of the Pacific, this results in a shifting of the temperature distribution and sea level pressure, which may cause a disturbance in the Jet Stream steering of storms during the Winter months (Trenberth et al ,1996).  A negative phase or reversal of El Nino called la Nina may have a similar effect on the Jet stream and opposite climate consequences.

    The reason for our analysis of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is to establish what the norms and extremes are for the Pacific. With this information we should be able to more easily examine future El Niņo's and La Ninas. In addition, we are looking for the effects on the east coast called teleconnections. We wish to determine if the ENSO determines droughts, floods, heavy snowfall, mild weather and if this is predictable. we also search for a connection between ENSO and its atlantic cousin "The North Atlantic Oscillation" (NAO).See Our Research Objectives.

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