NOAA is investing $4.5 million over the next four years in four projects testing technology to enhance the Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS), which improves understanding of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), how it develops, and how it affects Earth’s weather.

In January 2014, NOAA and the Japanese Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), in collaboration with the Ocean Observations Panel for Climate (OOPC), convened a review of the Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS) through a workshop and associated white papers.