Category: Oceans Influence on Climate & Weather

NOAA Satelite image of hurricanes Franklin and Idalia near the Southeastern United States

NOAA’s Multi-Faceted Hurricane Data Collection Efforts Provide a Detailed View of Hurricanes Franklin and Idalia

As Hurricanes Franklin and Idalia strengthened in late August, NOAA scientists collected critical data from the air, sea surface, and underwater to enhance forecasts and increase scientific knowledge.  In less than two weeks, a fleet of strategically placed oceanographic instruments gathered temperature, salinity, and surface wind speed data, while NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft repeatedly flew […]

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Study Finds Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Increases Flood Risk Along the United States Southeastern Coast

Sea level rise is one of the most challenging consequences of global warming. A new collaborative study led by Dr. Denis Volkov from NOAA-AOML and the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies found that Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) induced changes in basin-wide ocean heat content are influencing the frequency of floods along the United States southeastern coast. 

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Sunset photo: The sun dips to the surface of the glassy blue ocean with few white clusters of clouds. The ship is taken fromthe side of a vessel as we can see the boat's hull along the left edge of the photo, a niskin bottle sampler being lowered into the ocean over the side almost next to the sun.

Landmark study analyzes global ocean carbon storage over two decades, indicates weakening of ocean carbon sink

A landmark study published last week demonstrates that the ocean’s role as a carbon sink and its ability to store anthropogenic, or human-caused, carbon may be weakening. A collaboration among international researchers led by Jens Daniel Müller, Ph.D. (ETH Zurich), this study captures a snapshot of three decades of global interior ocean measurements to determine […]

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AOML Begins Tenth Year of Hurricane Glider Operations

This summer marks AOML’s tenth ­consecutive year of gathering underwater glider observations during the Atlantic hurricane season. The project began in 2014 with two gliders deployed off Puerto Rico to study the ocean’s role in tropical cyclone ­development and intensification. Since then, glider observations have become an ­integral part of the data ­gathered ­annually to improve tropical ­cyclone forecasts, as well as ­better understand how the ocean and ­atmosphere ­interact during the ­passage of tropical ­cyclones.

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A very active 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season: this satellite image shows three tropical storms - Katia, Irma and Jose - churning in the Atlantic at the same time. Image credit: NOAA.

Scientists at AOML Discover Atlantic Niño Fuels the Most Intense and Destructive Tropical Cyclones 

Scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) found that Atlantic Niño, the Atlantic counterpart of the Pacific El Niño, increases the formation of tropical cyclones off the coast of West Africa, also known as Cape (Cabo) Verde hurricanes. The study published in Nature Communications is the first to investigate the links between Atlantic Niño/Niña and seasonal Atlantic tropical cyclone activity and the associated physical mechanisms.

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Fifty-Five Days at Sea: Collecting Oceanographic Data from Brazil to Iceland

On May 9, a team of scientists aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown arrived at their final destination in Reykjavik, Iceland following 55 days at sea. The team of 50 scientists and 28 crew members followed a track through the North Atlantic, from Brazil to Iceland, referred to as the A16N transect, and successfully completed 150 stations, collecting over 3,000 samples from the Atlantic’s surface to the seafloor, giving scientists a holistic snapshot of the Atlantic Ocean basin.

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NOAA Scientists Detect a Reshaping of the Meridional Overturning Circulation in the Southern Ocean

Scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) have shown that the Global Meridional Overturning Circulation (GMOC), commonly known as the global ocean conveyor belt, has changed significantly in the Southern Ocean since the mid-1970s, with a broadening and strengthening of the upper overturning cell and a contraction and weakening of the lower cell. These changes are attributed to human induced ozone depletion in the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere and increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The study also shows that the changes in the Southern Ocean are slowly advancing into the South Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans.

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NOAA Research Vessel “Ronald H. Brown” in the harbor of Victoria, Seychelles. Photo Credit: NOAA.

First NOAA GO-SHIP Cruise In 5 Years Departs To Study Unique Atlantic Basin

Originally published at NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring & Observing on March 7th, 2023. 30-years of ocean observations provide view into long-term ocean trends On March 6, a team of scientists on the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown departed from Suape, Brazil for a 55-day cruise to the northerly waters of Reykjavik, Iceland. With 150 planned stops along this […]

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A few PIRATA buoys lay on their side aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown in front of a pink, yellow, and orange sky during the PIRATA Northeast Extension cruise (2022)

NOAA Cruise Ensures Flow of Critical Climate and Weather Data and Supports Collaborative Science

Researchers with NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, and partners set sail from Bridgetown, Barbados aboard NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown on November 1st, 2022. Over the next 40 days, the crew and scientists recovered and redeployed key moorings in the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA), deployed an additional mooring, and serviced two equatorial PIRATA buoys in support of the PIRATA Northeast Extension project and broader PIRATA objectives. They also conducted a number of research projects on the ocean and atmosphere that advance our understanding of carbon absorption in the ocean and atmospheric pollution.

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