Author: AOML Communications

Alyssa and Austin at Sunset. Photo Credit Kelly Montero, NOAA.

AOML Researchers Participate in South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Cruise

AOML researchers recently participated in the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Research Cruise, a survey of south Florida’s coastal waters on June 22-26 aboard the R/V Savannah. These cruises have investigated coastal water quality in south Florida since the late 1990s. The science crew collected samples to measure nutrients, plankton, productivity, chlorophyll a, and dissolved inorganic carbon. They also recorded salinity and temperature to help monitor ecosystem restoration efforts in south Florida. These cruises have an additional focus on lower trophic level dynamics downstream from the Shark River on the southwest Florida shelf.

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Florida Coral Disease April 2018

Coral Reefs will be Unable to Keep Pace with Sea-Level Rise

NOAA contributed to a study published today in the journal Nature that compares the upward growth rates of coral reefs with predicted rates of sea-level rise and found many reefs would be submerged in water so deep it will hamper their growth and survival. The study was done by an international team of scientists led by the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. 

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Global Drifter in Water Mt. Rainer

NOAA’s Global Drifter Program: Ocean Dynamics Data Improves Forecasting and Coastal Safety

NOAA’s Global Drifter Program is a globally collaborative research project that provides near real-time marine data for the world. It allows us to record data for weather forecasts, track decadal patterns, and pinpoint inter-annual climate variations like El Nino Southern Oscillation. Global drifters provide observational verification for weather models, calibrate satellite observations, and collect and transfer new data about the ocean temperature, currents and barometric pressure.

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Cruise team board aboard the Ronald H. Brown. Photo Credit: NOAA.

Live Science Update: Behind the Scenes

NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown continues to make its way around the world deploying many devices to observe the ocean. These platforms measure temperature, salinity, and ocean currents. This creates a network of ocean data that can be used to understand its physical dynamics and help us understand and anticipate change in weather, climate, and even ecosystems.

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Argo Deployment 2017

Argo Data Acquisition Center at AOML Surpasses One Million Profile Benchmark

Staff with the US Argo Data Acquisition Center (DAC) at AOML marked an important milestone this past February by processing the one millionth profile from Argo floats. The DAC team has been processing and quality controlling all of the raw data obtained from US-deployed Argo floats since 2001, with about 90,000 temperature-salinity profiles processed annually since 2007. These profiles have provided the global scientific community with an unprecedented record of the evolving state of the upper ocean, advancing understanding of the ocean’s role in world climate.

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Different shades of blue ocean on IO7. Photo Credit: NOAA.

Live Science Update: The Biome Beneath the Surface

Below the surface of our ocean there is another, smaller world that moves fast and breathes in and out with the ocean. Zooplankton communities likely create the fastest source of sinking carbon to the deeper ocean, and studying this process can help us understand more about the carbon cycle and how it affects us. Victoria Coles, Scientist aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown, can tell you more in her post “Biome Beneath the Surface.”

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A beautiful sunrise I got to see while waiting for my turn at the rosette. Photo Credit: NOAA.

Live Science Update: I07N 101- Intro to Oceanography

The NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown is taking scientists across the Indian Ocean on a research cruise to study the ocean’s chemistry, water temperature, and other physical dynamics. Holly Westbrook, a RSMAS scientist aboard the Ronald H. Brown talks about life on a research cruise. Close quarters, beautiful sunrises, and making friends- sub the lab coats for sunglasses!

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A full view of instruments attached to the platform. The LADCPs are the yellow instruments and the battery pack is the large cylinder sitting in front of the downlooker LADCP. Photo Credit: NOAA.

Live Science Update: Acoustic Measurements Determine Water Column Dynamics with LADCP Technology

NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown is taking scientists across the Indian Ocean on a research cruise to understand more about our ocean’s chemistry, temperature, and physical processes. The newest Live Science update follows Amanda Fay as she uses a Lowered Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (LADCP) to measure the speed of the water through the water column. When the instrument is lowered to depth, sound is sent out and reflected back from particles in the water, giving a complete profile of water column movement. To find out more about how this works in action, visit the GO-SHIP I07N Cruise blog post.

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Drifter Station Open House 2018

NOAA Open House 2018

May 10-12, 2018, AOML partnered with our colleagues on Virginia Key to welcome south Florida students and families to a NOAA Open House! The interactive scientific experience centered around three NOAA entities: AOML, the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and the Miami Weather Forecast Office, as well as the University of Miami Rosenstiel School,  MAST Academy, and the ANGARI Foundation. Over the three-day event, 859 guests learned more about the federal agency that provides daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, climate monitoring, fisheries management, coral monitoring, and coastal restoration.

The interactive experience rotated from the NOAA facilities on Virginia Key, to the University of Miami Rosenstiel School’s Experimental Fish Hatchery and SUSTAIN research facility. Participants also visited the MAST Academy Land SHARC and Weather on Wheels mobile outreach programs, and learned about weather forecasting from NOAA weather forecasters.

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