A Sieve for El Niño: How an Algorithm Finds the Minimal Model of a Fickle Climate
Every few years, a huge pool of warm water in the western Pacific Ocean shifts eastward, like water in a bathtub when you tilt it sharply to one side. That is El Niño. But each tilt is different: sometimes the water sloshes against the shores of Peru, sometimes it stalls in the middle, sometimes it pours out in a powerful surge, and sometimes it barely creeps.