Category: Oceans Influence on Climate & Weather

From Mississippi to Australia: 3 Research Cruises Depart to Improve Understanding of the Atlantic and Southern Ocean

Scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) are gearing up for a busy season at sea with three research cruises departing in the month of February. The A13.5 Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP) cruise, the I08S GO-SHIP cruise, and the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) Northeast Extension cruise will all depart in February to collect samples from the surface to the depths of the ocean and improve our understanding of ocean circulation, carbon uptake, biological conditions, and climate variability. 

Read Full Article

New Mapping Method Uses Sustained Observations to Estimate AMOC at 22.5°S

Changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and its transport of heat can affect climate and weather patterns, regional sea levels, and ecosystems. A new study led by Ivenis Pita, a University of Miami PhD student working at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory/ the Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS), is the first to estimate the AMOC and heat transport at 22.5°S in the South Atlantic, demonstrating the importance of sustained in situ observations to monitor the state of the AMOC. 

Read Full Article

NOAA Measures Hurricane Tammy from Satellites through the Sea

NOAA hurricane researchers successfully deployed a new uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) into Tropical Storm Tammy (2023) near an uncrewed surfance vehicle, saildrone, to measure parts of the storm too dangerous for humans to go. The Altius 600 UAS was launched from the NOAA WP-3D Orion Hurricane Hunter aircraft by scientists from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory during missions into the storm in coordination with the saildrone researchers and pilots.

Read Full Article

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 […]

Read Full Article

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. 

Read Full Article

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 […]

Read Full Article

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.

Read Full Article

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.

Read Full Article

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.

Read Full Article