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Part of a yearlong international effort known as the Global Weather Experiment, MONEX should help fill in crucial missing pieces in the jigsaw puzzle of global meteorology. But some scientists remain skeptical about how much can be learned. Says the University of Hawaii's Colin Ramage, who observed monsoons for more than a decade in India and Hong Kong: "The atmosphere is fundamentally chaotic. We shouldn't promise what we can't deliver." Joachim Kuettner, MONEX director for the U.S., takes a sunnier view. Says he: "The global experiment is the first chance to answer the ultimate question: Are there natural limits to [weather] prediction?"