Erin Coughlan de Perez co-authored two pieces on important environmental research.  The first article she co-authored suggests a new way of defining El Nino. This major climate oscillation affects rainfall and temperature around the world, from drought in the Horn of Africa to floods in Peru. Read more on the relative index that would solve this problem in the article Defining El Niño indices in a warming climate. Additionally, she co-authored a perspective on the use of satellite data for humanitarian early action. This piece titled, “Perspectives on flood forecast-based early action and opportunities for Earth observations” outlines the major data needs to enable flood forecasting and early action around the world, and the authors suggest Earth Observation inputs that can support these goals.