Ocean El Niño monitor gets an upgrade

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https://www.science.org/content/article/ocean-el-nino-monitor-gets-upgrade

By Paul Voosen, Science. 

Excerpt: For 3 years in a row, cool La Niña conditions have reigned in the tropical Pacific Ocean, suppressing the steady march of global warming. But warm waters are now rolling east and gathering off the west coast of South America, signaling the likely arrival of El Niño later this year and, next year, a surge in heat that could push the planet past 1.5°C of warming. These fluctuations in the Pacific—the greatest short-term control on global climate—once caught the world off guard. But they are now predictable months in advance, largely because of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array, a series of 55 U.S. buoys, moored to the sea floor, that stretch some 13,000 kilometers along the equator. Now, the TAO array is getting a $23 million overhaul, the first since it was set up in the mid-1990s, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says. The revamped buoys, the first of which was deployed on 13 April, will be more robust and able to monitor the ocean below in more detail, potentially allowing earlier and more accurate El Niño forecasts. Some will be moved into locations north of the equator, to enable better forecasts of cyclones and atmospheric rivers, the parades of storms that can inundate coastal regions such as California....

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