So I-- you can't just see that from satellites.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's a huge challenge to gather the data that scientists like Amanda can use.

Um, but since the nineteen nineties, we've had these networks of buoys that are tethered, um, and they have all kinds of sensors on them measuring things like temperature, salinity, uh, water velocity.

But they're getting a little bit old now, Roland.

So, um, they're rolling out, uh, a new, uh, system basically across these equatorial regions in the Pacific, and that's called the Tropical Pacific Observing System.

So this is an international effort, and it's very much an ongoing project.

Uh, and th- these matter not just because it's interesting what goes on on the sun, but because they end up interfering with satellites and things like that, I think.

So, Gareth, for my listeners' benefit, how about some way on Earth? How did you get started?

Yeah, sure.

So hello, Digitally Curious listeners.

Thanks for having us, by the way.

So yeah, our kind of origin story is that a while back we were a technology program on the BBC World Service called Digital Planet and we ran for many years and then that show ended.

And then because we loved doing it and we loved our listeners, we took it outside the BBC and here we are somewhere on Earth.

And I suppose the clear in many ways is in the name.

And it's just a fascinating human meets technology story from the late 90s.