Category: Featured at NOAA

May 22nd is the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps (NOAA Corps) 106th Birthday!

The NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps is one of the nation’s eight uniformed services and its officers are an integral part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). With approximately 330 officers and growing, the NOAA Corps supports nearly all of NOAA’s programs and missions. The combination of commissioned service and scientific expertise makes these officers uniquely capable of leading some of NOAA’s most important initiatives.

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Extreme climate event in North Atlantic may have kicked off Sargassum explosion a decade ago

When massive mounds of golden-brown seaweed began piling up on beaches throughout the Caribbean and West Africa in summer of 2011, the question of where it came from probably mattered less to residents and businesses than how they were going to get rid of it. Certainly, few would have connected the Sargassum seaweed invasion to the extremely snowy 2010-11 winter in the eastern United States. But according to a hypothesis proposed by a team of NOAA AOML-led scientists in 2020, the two phenomena share an origin story: an extremely strong and long-lasting shift of the North Atlantic Oscillation into its negative phase back in 2010.

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Massive bloom of seaweed in tropical Atlantic raises the risk for Caribbean, Gulf, and Florida beach impacts in coming months

Earlier this year, ocean scientists raised an alert about the large amount of seaweed drifting in the tropical Atlantic this spring. Experts warned that the region’s annual spring bloom of Sargassum—a free-floating brown macroalgae from the North Atlantic that suddenly appeared in large quantities in the tropics in 2011— was the densest observed in March since scientists began tracking the phenomenon with satellite images twenty years ago. Excessive amounts of Sargassum raise the chances that large mats will break free from the prevailing currents and wash ashore later this spring and summer in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and around Florida.

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New study establishes monitoring framework for evaluating reef persistence under climate change and ocean acidification

Coral scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and University of Miami Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Science (CIMAS) developed a new modeling approach, for evaluating coral reef persistence under climate change scenarios. Aiming to improve coral restoration efforts, this new user-friendly framework has been created as a helpful tool for coral reef scientists and managers to address the increasing vulnerability of these vital ecosystems.

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12 Days of Instruments

Introducing a new social media series from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML): 12 Days of Instruments! 

This series highlights 12 of the many instruments used by our researchers at AOML! Each of these instruments are vital to conducting our groundbreaking research.

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Congratulations to the Winners of 2022 Department of Commerce and NOAA Awards!

Congratulations to all of the 2022 Department of Commerce and NOAA Award winners! AOML is proud to recognize the achievements of our outstanding scientists and staff for their vital contributions to increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of NOAA. From creative problem solving in the face of unforeseen challenges to developing innovative tools and techniques in [...]
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AOML Lab Director Receives Presidential Rank Award

President Biden has selected John Cortinas, Ph.D, NOAA’s Director at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, as one of the recipients of the 2022 Presidential Rank Award. The award is one of the most prestigious in the federal career civil service and recognizes the hard work and important contributions of dedicated civil servants in the American federal workforce.

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