The wind anomalies are a manifestation of an atmospheric counterpart to the oceanic El Niño. At the turn of the century, the British climatologist Gilbert Walker set out to determine the connections between the Malaysian-Australian monsoon and other climatic fluctuations around the globe in an effort to predict unusual monsoon years that bring drought and famine to the Asian sector. Unaware of any connection to El Niño, he discovered a coherent interannual fluctuation of atmospheric pressure over the tropical Indo-Pacific region, which he termed the Southern Oscillation (SO). During years of reduced rainfall over northern Australia and Indonesia, the pressure ...(100 of 37038 words)