Author: AOML Communications

Drew Osbrink and Eric Redweik of Sensintel and NOAA hurricane researcher Joe Cione monitor data from the Coyote as it flies into Hurricane Edouard. (Image Credit:NOAA)

NOAA Researchers Will Use 2015 Season to Improve Hurricane Track and Intensity Forecasts

This hurricane season, NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research will work with NOAA’s National Weather Service to upgrade weather forecast models and conduct research with unmanned air and water craft to improve forecasts of hurricane track and intensity.A highlight this season is the upgrade of the operational Hurricane Weather Research and Forecast system (HWRF), an advanced hurricane prediction model. This year’s version now has increased the resolution from 3 to 2 kilometers, and will use tail Doppler radar data collected from the NOAA P-3 and G-IV hurricane hunter aircraft to improve the storm representation within the model.

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AOML Coral Ecologist discusses ocean acidification impacts on corals with a group of students. Image credit: NOAA

NOAA and Partners Host Open House for 1300

NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and the National Marine Fisheries Service/Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) partnered with the University of Miami Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science to host an open house May 14th-16th. The three day event brought over 1300 people to Virginia Key to learn about a variety of scientific topics including hurricane research, climate science, oceanography, local fisheries, coral communities, and endangered species. NOAA and UM scientists were on-hand to describe their research projects and answer questions and visitors got to participate in a number of hands-on demonstrations at AOML, SEFSC, the University of Miami, and the Maritime and Science Technology (MAST) Academy Land SHARC and Weather on Wheels mobile outreach programs.

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Illustration of increased trade winds in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during the recent warming hiatus, which increased the inter-ocean pressure gradient and thus enhanced Indonesian throughflow. This resulted in an abrupt increase of Indian Ocean heat content. Image credit: NOAA/CIMAS

Indian Ocean Plays Key Role in Global Warming Hiatus

The earth is warming, but temperatures in the atmosphere and at the sea surface that steadily rose in the last half-century have leveled off and slowed in the past decade, causing the appearance of an imbalance in Earth’s heat budget. Scientists are looking into the deep ocean to determine where this additional heat energy could be stored, and recently traced a pathway that leads to the Indian Ocean.

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Gliders lined up and ready for deployment. Photo Credit: NOAA.

Underwater Gliders Retrieved After Successful Second Mission

On April 27th, AOML physical oceanographers partnered with the University of Puerto Rico to successfully recover two underwater gliders from the Caribbean Sea aboard the R/V La Sultana of the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez. The gliders successfully transected a region in the eastern Caribbean providing approximately 3000 profile observations of temperature, salinity, oxygen, and surface as well as depth-average current velocities. 

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The ARSV Laurence M. Gould, operated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), in the Southern Ocean. (Colm Sweeney / CIRES & NOAA)

Scientists Find Southern Ocean Removing CO2 from the Atmosphere More Efficiently

A research vessel ploughs through the waves, braving the strong westerly winds of the Roaring Forties in the Southern Ocean in order to measure levels of dissolved carbon dioxide in the surface of the ocean. (Nicolas Metzl, LOCEAN/IPSL Laboratory).

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The NOAA ship Nancy Foster in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Image Credit: NOAA

AOML Partners with NOAA Fisheries to Study Larval Fish in the Caribbean

AOML is partnering with NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) to conduct an interdisciplinary research cruise aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster from April 11, 2015 through June 3, 2015. The cruise will begin in the U.S. Virgin Islands and extend westward across the northern Caribbean conducting various biological and physical oceanographic surveys.

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A pair of bottlenose dolphins cruising behind the Nancy Foster. Image credit: NOAA

NOAA Conducts Interdisciplinary Research Cruise in the Caribbean Aboard the Nancy Foster

AOML partnered with NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) to conduct an interdisciplinary research cruise aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster from April 11, 2015 through June 3, 2015. The cruise began in the U.S. Virgin Islands and extended westward across the northern Caribbean to Mexico. Researchers from various institutions conducted a myriad of biological and physical oceanographic surveys during the three month cruise.

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Group photo of the participants at the Rosenstiel School's MTLSSC Building. Image credit: NOAA

AOML Hosts Young Scientists on Take Your Child To Work Day

On April 10, 2015, AOML personnel participated in the annual ‘Take Your Child to Work Day’ tradition. Parents and students shared a day full of science which included a tour of the UM Rosenstiel School’s new Marine Technology & Life Sciences Seawater Complex. At the MTLSSC, participants observed the SUSTAIN wave tank in action, interacted with the resident aplysia, and toured a coral nursery. Thanks to all the AOML staff and young scientists who joined us this year!

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Sunset aboard the R/V F.G. Walton Smith. Image credit: NOAA

April Hydrographic Survey Conducted in the Florida Straits

AOML physical oceanographers conducted a hydrographic survey along the 27th north parallel in the Florida Straits aboard the R/V F.G. Walton Smith on April 9-10, 2015. The cruise was conducted as part of the ongoing Western Boundary Time Series project, which is designed to quantify Florida Current volume transport and water mass changes. Scientists measured full water column values of salinity, temperature, and oxygen using CTD equipment. This survey and others help to calibrate daily estimates of the Florida Current volume transport.

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