Research at the Physical Oceanography Division addresses several elements of the strategic plan of NOAA's Office of Ocean and Atmospheric Research (OAR) (relevant OAR objectives could be listed here). The common theme of PhOD research is Atlantic Ocean variability and how it interacts with climate, especially in the Western Hemisphere, and how society and ecosystems are impacted. Most of the research is published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and is logically divided into topical areas that we call projects. In addition to base support from NOAA, these projects receive outside funding from organizations like the NOAA Office of Global Programs, NASA contracts, etc. The sidebar on the left itemizes the research by projects and separately lists the various kinds of publications we produce. Most of our projects make use of the observations managed by AOML and described elsewhere on these pages, while some of the research involves global observations prepared at other laboratories, or the use of numerical models.
Climate Regime Shifts
Recent research has pointed to the existence of natural climate phases, or regimes that persist on the scale of human generations (15-40 years). The climate regimes alternate under the influence of long-term sea-surface temperature oscillations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Go
Ecosystem Research
NOAA's South Florida Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Program (SFP) is a coordinated effort between NOAA/NOS, NOAA/OAR, and NOAA/NMFS and is locally managed with offices at both the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami and the Florida Bay Interagency Science Center in Key Largo. Go
Western Boundary Time Series
This project consists of two components to monitor the western boundary currents in the subtropical Atlantic: the Florida Current transport measurements using a submarine telephone cable plus calibration cruises and the Deep Western Boundary Current transport and property measurements using dedicated research ship time and moorings. Go