El Niño

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The eruption of the El Chichonal volcano in Mexico produced a highly reflective mist that prevented satellites from detecting the increase in Pacific Ocean temperatures that indicates the onset of an El Niño.

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Today, however, the odds of missing an approaching El Niño due to atmospheric disruption have been greatly reduced, thanks to an extensive buoy system, deployed in the 1990s, that monitors Pacific environmental conditions from the ocean's surface and beams the measurements via satellite directly to scientists.

Want more information on El Niño? Check out this week's NOVA website.

Let's see if you can 'weather' next week's NOVA Challenge!