Scientists' controversial plan to stop Super El Nino could trigger extreme Mega La Niña weather event

A Super El Niño could be fixed by deploying a risky science tool, but once that happens, it could spark something that can no longer be stopped once it begins.

An El Niño is set to impact worldwide weather up until 2027, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announcing the Pacific Ocean was ready for one to approach.

In fact, they said there was a 63 per cent chance temperatures would exceed increases of 2°C, putting the world into 'super' El Niño territory.

If you don’t know what the impact of this would mean, it could set off natural climate events with damaging consequences.

Be it too much rain, not enough, storms, and more.

So, to tackle this potential danger, which could see temperatures soar until next year, scientists have been considering something different.

Scientists are looking at a controversial method to cool down rising temperatures (Getty Stock Images)

A study led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has since put down a potential solution to this – a controversial technique called solar geoengineering that could quell the heat, but trigger a La Niña.

James Haywood, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Exeter, told CNN there are ‘many, many unanswered questions and uncertainties as to the viability of marine cloud brightening’ and its ability to cool down the temperatures.

He explained there are questions about the size of particles needed, and how many.

“Then there is the question of what if we overdo it?” he added, speculating there could be a risk of sparking a mega La Niña ‘many, many times stronger than we’ve experienced before.’

“We are a long way away from being able to deploy such technologies and knowing whether they would work as intended,” he said.

It could trigger a mega La Niña (Getty Stock Images)

As opposed to an El Niño, which sees temps fly, this would have the opposite effect – producing rapid cooling that triggers droughts, rains and flooding.

The scientists focused on something known as ‘marine cloud brightening,’ which is when clouds are sprayed with particles to reflect the sunlight back into space instead of toward Earth.

But fears of ‘disastrous unintended consequences’ stopped them from being able to conclude the benefits, and instead turned to a ‘natural experiment’.

To do this, they isolated the cloud brightening impacts of the Australian fires and climate models to simulate a similar event happening before the 1997 and 2015 El Niño events.

While it did confirm that it would weaken the El Niño’s impacts and lead to cooling, it could also be disastrous if it was followed by ‘termination shock’.

This is when there is a rapid rise in temperatures that begins as soon as the cooling stops.

So, this could lead to scientists having to constantly deploy cloud brightening techniques to then stop the resulting shock - however, this is just a theory.