AOML Presents: 12 days of Research

At AOML, everything we do is in support of NOAA’s mission: to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean and coasts; to share that knowledge and information with others; and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. Together with our partners, we do this by collecting critical data, monitoring ecosystems, modeling the Earth system, and developing new technologies to expand our research capabilities. 

AOML has two social media stars: Dr. Dorothy Datapoint (or Dotty) and Darwin, our resident crocodile! Dotty and Darwin help us teach students and our followers about the research happening here at AOML. Check out The Data Diaries and Darwin Explains!

AOML is made up of three research divisions: the Hurricane Research Division (HRD), Physical Oceanography Division (PhOD), and the Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division (OCED). Scientists at AOML research specific topics that fit within a division with extensive collaboration occurring between divisions and across NOAA and our cooperative institute partners.

At AOML, we use ‘Omics technology (genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, etc) for four main areas of research: coral restoration, fisheries management, mapping marine biodiversity to assess ecosystem health, and monitoring water quality and harmful algal blooms. ‘Omics technology helps us answer research questions about DNA, RNA, proteins, and other small molecules from organisms and the environment. With this information, we can identify mechanisms that keep marine systems healthy and productive.

In the 2025 hurricane season, there were five hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, including three category five hurricanes (Erin, Humberto, and Melissa). Meteorologists at AOML conducted 52 hurricane hunter missions aboard the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center’s P-3 and G-IV aircraft, and spent a total of 3700 hours supporting hurricane missions. 

The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) is the largest monitoring program in the world designed to support the conservation of coral reef ecosystems. AOML leads the in-situ monitoring of environmental stressors like ocean acidification for the Atlantic Ocean, monitoring six key regions: Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Dry Tortugas, St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Puerto Rico. Within each region are multiple sites in which our scientists collect data, swap out instruments, and perform photogrammetry surveys. 

A BioGeoChemical (BGC) Argo float has the ability to collect seven variables: temperature, salinity, oxygen, pH, nitrate, chlorophyll-a, and backscatter particles. Each variable provides insights on the ocean’s physical properties from the surface layers to depths as great as 6,500 feet. Argo float data has the potential to be used to validate biogeochemical models and to serve as a data source for assimilation into ocean models on regional to global scales. 

AOML teamed up with the United Kingdom-based robotics company, Oshen, and the University of Southern Mississippi to deploy small, wind–powered uncrewed surface vehicles (called C-Stars) with the goal of gathering data from the ocean surface during hurricanes. This hurricane season there were a total of eight C-Stars released, including one that penetrated the eyewall of a category 5 hurricane!

AOML regularly participates in nine ongoing research cruises. These cruises include: the Prediction and Research Moored Array (PIRATA Northeast Extension), Western Boundary Time Series (WBTS), South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Program (SFER), the Gulf and Ocean Monitoring Ecosystems and Carbon Cruises (GOMECC), East Coast Ocean Acidification (ECOA), Global Ocean Ship-Based Hydrographic Investigation (GO-SHIP), Ships of Opportunity (SOOP), JUVENILE sportsfish surveys, and Southwest Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (SAM). Whether the cruise occurs every month or once every few years, each one is an important part of the long term monitoring and research being done at AOML.

Argo is an international program that collects information from inside the ocean using free drifting profiling floats. The standard Argo float mission is known as “park-and-profile.” The float descends to a target depth of 1,000 meters to “park” and drift with the ocean currents. Every ten days the floats descend to 2,000 meters and then collect a vertical profile of temperature and salinity, that describe the biology/chemistry of the ocean, during ascent to the surface. In fiscal year 2025, the US Argo Data Assembly Center at AOML processed 104, 214 Argo Profiles!

AOML’s Hurricane Field Program has eleven different flight patterns for collecting data when flying in and around storms. The flight patterns that will be flown into each storm are decided in mission briefings beforehand. The flight patterns are determined by factors such as storm dynamics, flight safety, and the data being collected. Check out what they look like here!

AOML has completed twelve hurricane seasons using gliders. Gliders are autonomous vehicles that are approximately 6 feet long and weigh about 200 lbs. They measure a suite of ocean parameters like temperature, salinity, currents, and dissolved oxygen, several times per day from the sea surface to depths up to 1000 m. After 12 seasons of use, AOML has gathered thousands of data profiles, helping scientists and forecasters better understand the ocean’s influence on hurricanes.