The program will study the southeastern Pacific Ocean, specifically the area off South America's west coast -- a region where the interplay of low clouds, strong low-level winds, ocean currents, the Andes Mountains and other factors affect global weather in ways that are poorly understood.

"Models currently used for climate change studies have systematic errors concerning the southeastern Pacific Ocean and because the models are not accurate for such an extensive area, the El Ninos they produce in the Pacific are questionable as well," said UCLA Professor C. Roberto Mechoso, chairman of the program known as VOCALS -- VAMOS (or Variability of the American Monson Systems) Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-Land Study. "We hope our research will get rid of, or at least greatly decrease, these uncertainties."

VOCALS is supported primarily by U.S. federal funding. With a budget of more than $16 million, the field program will begin in October off the coasts of Chile and Peru.