Category Archives: Events

Women’s History Month is celebrated annually in March and pays tribute to the generations of women whose contributions made a historical impact on society. It is also a month to honor women who are currently working hard to make positive innovations and impressions on the world.

The Oceanography Society published a special issue of their magazine for 2015 Women’s History Month entitled “Women in Oceanography: a decade Later,” which features four of AOML’s female oceanographers.

The Oceanography Society’s feature includes statistics, women’s program descriptions, and one-page autobiographical sketches written by women oceanographers. It is the sequel to their first “Women in Oceanography” issue, released in 2005, dedicated to exploring why men outnumbered women at higher levels of the field.

This issue evaluates progresses made in retaining women in the oceanography field over the past decade. The article included over 200 autobiographical sketches, which highlighted AOML’s Libby (Elizabeth) Johns, Renellys C. Perez, Claudia Schmid, and Silvia L. Garzoli.

Click below to find out more about each scientist.

Originally published in March 2015 by Shannon Jones 

If you’ve ever sailed aboard a ship in the coastal ocean, or checked a weather report before going to the beach, then you are one of many millions of people who benefit from ocean observations. NOAA collects ocean observations and weather data to provide mariners with accurate forecasts of seas, as well as coastal forecasts and even regional climate predictions. It takes a lot of effort to maintain observations in all of the ocean basins to support these forecasts, and NOAA certainly can’t do it alone. Partnerships are essential to maintaining a network of free-floating buoys, known as drifters, and NOAA’s latest partner is not your typical research or ocean transportation vessel: the six sailboats and crew currently racing around the world in the Volvo Ocean Race.

As one of the world’s major global sailing races, the Volvo Ocean Race greatly depends on accurate predictions of ocean currents and marine weather. All six of the Volvo Ocean Race teams will each deploy a drifter, a free-floating sensor that measures surface pressure and ocean currents and transmits the information by satellite to NOAA, during the fifth leg of the race, in the Southern Ocean – a region oceanographers don’t get to visit regularly, but one that is important to observe.

Update from the Southern Ocean:

On March 20th, despite less than ideal conditions, sailors aboard the six sailing vessels successfully deployed drifters at target locations in the Southern Ocean.

Will Oxley, Team Alvimedica’s navigator, was excited to participate in the drifter deployment. Aside from being a top offshore sailor, Oxley is a marine biologist who recognizes the importance of data collection in the Southern Ocean.

“It’s believed the Southern Ocean absorbs up to about 60 percent of the heat and carbon dioxide produced by humans,” he explains. “So the Southern Ocean is a very important ‘sink’ that is absorbing carbon dioxide and slowing the pace of global warming.”

NOAA scientists will soon be receiving critical real-time data from some of the most remote waters on the planet. Access the drifter data online by clicking on the thumbnail.

Originally Published March 2015 by Shannon Jones

NOAA has selected South Florida’s Biscayne Bay as one of the next Habitat Focus Areas under NOAA’s Habitat Blueprint. Habitat Blueprint offers opportunities for NOAA to partner with organizations to address coastal and marine habitat loss and degradation issues. It provides a framework, which builds upon existing programs, prioritizes activities, and helps users act strategically and preventively in order to sustain resilient and thriving marine and coastal ecosystems and resources.

OML is located on Virginia Key in south Florida, surrounded by the clear waters of Biscayne Bay. The bay provides a home for endangered species, seagrass nurseries, and feeding grounds for many valued fish. The bay’s clear waters also support regional economy, recreation, and tourism. In the past 20 years, scientists at AOML, Florida International University, Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management, and South Florida Water Management District have observed a trend in increased concentrations of chlorophyll a, an index of phytoplankton abundance. Phytoplankton, also known as microalgae, are microscopic plants in the water column, requiring sunlight and nutrients to live. With increasing phytoplankton comes the potential for frequent algal blooms that damage seagrass beds by reducing the light available to seagrass.

The recorded increase in phytoplankton, coupled with the recent appearance of an expansive diatom bloom in the southern bay in 2013 and macroalgae overgrowing seagrass beds in the central bay is causing scientists to worry about the future of Biscayne Bay’s ecosystem. If phytoplankton continues to increase, the quality of Biscayne Bay’s clear, pristine water could decrease and seagrass could be be smothered causing a widespread loss that would be hard to halt or reverse.

AOML’s Chris Kelble is co-leading the implementation team with NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center’s Joan Browder in hopes of identifying solutions to improve Biscayne Bay health, before it declines. With the help of NOAA’s Habitat Blueprint, partnering organizations can develop assessments, experiments and analyses to ultimately protect, restore, and sustain Biscayne Bay’s healthy ecosystem.

Habitat Blueprint is providing grant opportunities for restoration projects in NOAA’s new Habitat focus areas. Up to $1.2 million is expected to be available to support comprehensive and cooperative habitat conservations projects in areas including Biscayne Bay, FL. Habitat Blueprints goal is to have projects that sustain resilient and thriving marine and coastal resources, communities, and economies. Interested parties must apply and submit proposals that address the unique, site-specific objectives and issues/concerns that have been identified for Biscayne Bay, in hopes of restoring degraded areas, protecting environmental habitats, and fostering resilient coastal communities.

Originally Published in January 2015 by Shannon Jones

A study of Galápagos’ coral reefs provides evidence that reefs exposed to lower pH and higher nutrient levels may be the most affected and least resilient to changes in climate and ocean chemistry.

The Galápagos Islands are a unique habitat that allows scientists to study many ecological conditions, including exposure to naturally high levels of oceanic carbon dioxide. The coasts of the Galápagos are bathed in upwelled water from the deep ocean. This upwelled water has high carbon dioxide concentrations. Greater levels of carbon dioxide result in lower pH levels in seawater, making it more acidic.  Waters with high carbon dioxide can have negative affects on some organisms, like corals, that build their skeletons underwater. These naturally high levels of carbon dioxide surrounding the Galápagos are a present day example of the conditions expected throughout the rest of the tropics by the 2050’s.

Warm water temperatures are another factor affecting the Galápagos. The 1982-1983 El Niño Southern Oscillation warming event increased water temperatures in the Galápagos 3-4 degrees C above the usual maximum sea temperatures.  This warming physically stressed Galápagos corals, causing them to expel the algae living in their tissues and become completely white or bleached. This and other similar coral bleaching events coupled with the naturally occurring high levels of carbon dioxide, made it difficult for coral reefs to rebuild their calcium carbonate skeletons.  None of the Galápagos’ southern reefs show signs of revival and the only reef recovering is off the far northern island, Darwin.

As a coral ecologist and lead researcher for NOAA’s National Coral Reef Monitoring Program, Derek Manzello gathered an abundance of data on the seawater surrounding the southern Galápagos Islands, but he had limited information on the seawater in the northern islands. Thanks to the Khaled bin Sultan Living Ocean’s Foundation, Manzello and his team were able to venture to Darwin and conduct field studies comparing corals and seawater chemistry between the southern and northern islands. They discovered that at the present day acidification levels, corals can recover from severely stressful events, but their recovery is dependent on water quality conditions.

In the Galápagos study, waters have lower pH and higher nutrients in the southern Islands.  The team measured changes in coral density to compare growth rates of corals in the southern and northern waters. Corals, like trees, have an annual banding pattern, which is used to determine annual growth rates. Manzello’s team took core samples from corals, and examined their density bands with a micro-CT scanner, producing three-dimensional X-ray images.  Using these images, scientists observed healthier annual growth rates and density patterns for corals in the northern waters.  Corals in the southern waters, which were exposed to elevated nutrients and high CO2 levels due to upwelling, showed less skeletal growth.

“The Galápagos reefs provide one piece of the science of predicting how coral reefs will fare with continued warming and ocean acidification.” Says Manzello “There are other areas with high levels of carbon dioxide that do not experience as high of nutrient values as the Galápagos. This allows us to understand how acidification may impact the future of coral reefs through the worlds oceans.”

With support from NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation and Ocean Acidification Programs, NOAA oceanographers can continuously evaluate, monitor, and study the effects of ocean acidification. Learn more about AOML’s collaborative ocean acidification efforts in the Island of Maug and the Florida Keys.

Originally Published in January 2015 by Shannon Jones

Improved model, new surge forecast products and research projects debuted

The Atlantic hurricane season will officially end November 30, and will be remembered as a relatively quiet season as was predicted. Still, the season afforded NOAA scientists with opportunities to produce new forecast products, showcase successful modeling advancements, and conduct research to benefit future forecasts.

“Fortunately, much of the U.S. coastline was spared this year with only one landfalling hurricane along the East Coast. Nevertheless, we know that’s not always going to be the case,” said Louis Uccellini, Ph.D., director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “The ‘off season’ between now and the start of next year’s hurricane season is the best time for communities to refine their response plans and for businesses and individuals to make sure they’re prepared for any potential storm.”

How the Atlantic Basin seasonal outlooks from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center verified:

“A combination of atmospheric conditions acted to suppress the Atlantic hurricane season, including very strong vertical wind shear, combined with increased atmospheric stability, stronger sinking motion and drier air across the tropical Atlantic,” said Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. “Also, the West African monsoon was near- to below average, making it more difficult for African easterly waves to develop.”

Meanwhile, the eastern North Pacific hurricane season met or exceded expectations with 20 named storms – the busiest since 1992. Of those, 14 became hurricanes and eight were major hurricanes. NOAA’s seasonal hurricane outlook called for 14 to 20 named storms, including seven to 11 hurricanes, of which three to six were expected to become major hurricanes. Two hurricanes (Odile and Simon) brought much-needed moisture to the parts of the southwestern U.S., with very heavy rain from Simon causing flooding in some areas.

“Conditions that favored an above-normal eastern Pacific hurricane season included weak vertical wind shear, exceptionally moist and unstable air, and a strong ridge of high pressure in the upper atmosphere that helped to keep storms in a conducive environment for extended periods,” added Bell.

In the central North Pacific hurricane basin, there were five named storms (four hurricanes, including a major hurricane, and one tropical storm). NOAA’s seasonal hurricane outlook called for four to seven tropical cyclones to affect the central Pacific this season. The most notable storm was major Hurricane Iselle, which hit the Big Island of Hawaii in early August as a tropical storm, and was the first tropical cyclone to make landfall in the main Hawaiian Islands since Hurricane Iniki in 1992. Hurricane Ana was also notable in that it was the longest-lived tropical cyclone (13 days) of the season and the longest-lived central Pacific storm of the satellite era.

New & improved products this year

As part of its efforts to provide better products and services, NOAA’s National Weather Service introduced many new and experimental products that are already paying off.

The upgrade of the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) model in June with increased vertical resolution and improved physics produced excellent forecasts for Hurricane Arthur’s landfall in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and provided outstanding track forecasts in the Atlantic basin through the season. The model, developed by NOAA researchers including AOML’s Hurrican Research Division, is also providing guidance on tropical cyclones in other basins globally, including the Western Pacific and North Indian Ocean basins, benefiting the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and several international operational forecast agencies. The Global Forecast System (GFS) model has also been a valuable tool over the last couple of hurricane seasons, providing excellent guidance in track forecasts out to 120 hours.

In 2014, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center introduced an experimental five-day Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook to accompany its text product for both the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins. The new graphics indicate the likelihood of development and the potential formation areas of new tropical cyclones during the next five days. NHC also introduced an experimental Potential Storm Surge Flooding Map for those areas along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the United States at risk of storm surge from an approaching tropical cyclone. First used on July 1 as a strengthening Tropical Storm Arthur targeted the North Carolina coastline, the map highlights those geographical areas where inundation from storm surge could occur and the height above ground that the water could reach.

Beginning with the 2015 hurricane season, NHC plans to offer a real-time experimental storm surge watch/warning graphic for areas along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the United States where there is a danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation from an approaching tropical cyclone.

Fostering further improvements

While this year’s hurricane season was relatively quiet, NOAA scientists used new tools that have the potential to improve hurricane track and intensity forecasts. Several of these tools resulted from research projects supported by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, which was passed by Congress in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Among the highlights were successful manned and unmanned aircraft missions into Atlantic hurricanes to collect data and evaluate forecast models. NOAA and NASA’s missions involving the Global Hawk, an unmanned aircraft that flies at higher altitudes and for longer periods of time than manned aircraft, allowed scientists to sample weather information off the west coast of Africa where hurricanes form, and also to investigate Hurricane Edouard’s inner core with eight crossings over the hurricane’s eye. NOAA launched a three-year project to assess the impact of data collected by the Global Hawk on forecast models and to design sampling strategies to improve model forecasts of hurricane track and intensity.

While the Global Hawk flew high above hurricanes, NOAA used the much smaller Coyote, an unmanned aircraft system released from NOAA’s hurricane hunter manned aircraft, to collect wind, temperature and other weather data in hurricane force winds at much lower altitudes during Edouard. The Coyote flew into areas of the storm that would be too dangerous for manned aircraft, sampling weather in and around the eyewall at very low altitudes. In addition, NOAA’s hurricane hunters gathered data in Hurricanes Arthur, Bertha and Cristobal, providing information to improve forecasts and to test, refine and improve forecast models. The missions were directed by research meteorologists from AOML’s Hurricane Research Division, and the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in Tampa.

In addition, increased research and operational computing capacity planned in 2015 will facilitate future model upgrades to the GFS and HWRF to include better model physics and higher resolution predictions. These upgraded models will provide improved guidance to forecasters leading to better hurricane track and intensity predictions.

The 2015 hurricane season begins June 1 for the Atlantic Basin and central North Pacific, and on May 15 for the eastern North Pacific. NOAA will issue seasonal outlooks for all three basins in May. Learn how to prepare at hurricanes.gov/prepare and FEMA’s Ready.gov. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources.

Originally Published November 2014 by Shannon Jones