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Smithsonian Magazine ·Future-gazing

Could We Mitigate Super El Niños by Artificially Changing the Climate? A New Study Indicates Yes

Published 2026-07-09 18:17:32+00:00

Could making the clouds a little brighter stop a super El Niño before it starts?

0:00 / 5:36 · Narrator Sulafat

Context

The Pacific Ocean is heating up, and with it, the threat of a super El Niño that could scramble the weather across the globe. A 9 July 2026 report in Smithsonian Magazine looks at a study that suggests cooling things down by spraying salt into the sky. This method, known as marine cloud brightening, turns clouds into mirrors to bounce sunlight back into space. It offers a shift in how to think about fixing the climate: not as a permanent overhaul, but as a temporary fix to stop a specific disaster before it begins.

Show notes

A study using computer models suggests that making clouds more reflective could stop the most extreme El Niño weather events. Researchers simulated adding particles to clouds over the Pacific Ocean to block sunlight, a process that turned past super El Niños into neutral weather patterns. The findings show how targeted climate engineering might prevent natural disasters, though the technology for such an effort does not yet exist.

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