Physical Oceanography

The Physical Oceanography Division is comprised of scientists, engineers, and technical support staff that aid NOAA’s mission by observing and studying ocean and climate dynamics, the physical drivers of ecosystem variability, and the impacts of natural and anthropogenic activities on marine resources. We study how ocean changes affect climate, marine ecosystems, and coastal and inland communities. We also share and build on the current state of knowledge by maintaining valuable, long-term datasets of changes over time.

Overturning Oceans & Societal Impacts

The overturning circulation is one of the primary ways that the oceans move heat, salt, carbon and nutrients throughout the global oceans. Changes in the AMOC over time have a pronounced impact on a variety of socially important weather and climate phenomena, on the blue economy, and on commerce. AOML scientists have shown that these changes predict precipitation changes around the world.

Visit the Meridional Overturning Circulation Page

Global Ocean Observing System

AOML works with partners around the world to develop and maintain key components of these systems of observing technologies, known collectively as the Global Ocean Observing System. The resulting observations have been shown to improve weather forecasts and advance our knowledge of climate fluctuations.

Visit the Global Ocean Observing System Page

Ocean Monitoring to Protect Marine Mammals and Manage Fisheries

AOML scientists have developed several tools and reporting systems in conjunction with our partners to reduce ship strikes for endangered right whales, track larval distributions for better stock assessments, and provide information to track bluefin tuna fisheries.

Visit the Observations for the Blue Economy Page

Oceanographers Help Improve Outlooks of Extreme Weather

Scientists at AOML are working to extend the forecast for extreme weather events (such as heatwaves, tornadoes, and hurricanes). Improved forecasts serve to provide emergency managers, government officials, businesses, and the public with better advanced warning to minimize catastrophic loss of life and damage to critical infrastructure.

Visit the Extreme Weather Page

Featured Projects

Hurricane Glider Project

Improving Hurricane Intensity Forecasts with Ocean Observations

Global Drifter Program

Climatology of surface current data provides high-resolution monthly temperature

PIRATA

Physical ocean dynamics data taken daily, updated yearly

An Argo float being thrown off a ship into the ocean.

Argo Program

An Array of Profiling Floats Observing the Ocean in Real-Time

Western Boundary Time Series

Monitoring the Western Boundary Currents in the Subtropical Atlantic

Repeat hydrography image. Photo Credit: NOAA.

GO-SHIP Repeat Hydrography

Documenting changes in heat, fresh water, carbon, nutrients, and oxygen and trace gases

eXpendable BathyThermograph (XBT) Network

Collecting temperature observations of the upper 1km of the ocean

Physical Oceanography Data

Data from buoys, satellites, and instruments on the sea floor can be accessed on our Data page or by clicking the links below.

Florida Current Transport Time Series

Submerged cables provide voltage differential to measure daily transport

Experimental Sargassum Inundation Reports

Assesses the risk of sargassum coastal inundation in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico regions.

OceanViewer

Providing Real-Time Ocean Observations with in-Situ Sampling

Argo Data

Broad-scale global array of temperature and salinity profiling floats.

Satellite Data

Sea height anomaly, sea surface and water column temperature, and surface currents.

Global Drifter Data

Global surface currents, drifter-derived climatology, and seasonal current animations.

State of the Ocean Observing System Data

The State of the Ocean Observing System is our evaluation of how well essential ocean and climate variables are being measured.

XBT Data

Temperature, structure, and time-dependent ocean properties of the Atlantic Subtropical Gyre.

Ocean Inorganic Carbon Data

Dissolved inorganic compound (DIC) measurements and underway partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) measurements.

Science Seminars

The Physical Oceanography Division at AOML hosts seminars to share its latest work and strengthen collaborations for an Earth Systems approach to research. Watch seminars from previous years on Youtube.

Upcoming Seminars

Nov 30, 2PM ET: Bobby West will present the informal research report “Modulation of seasonal hurricane activity and track density by interbasin SST variability” via GoToMeeting.

saildrone

Project Highlight

Saildrone 1054 equipped with a new compact wing designed for extreme high-wind events. Image credit: Saildrone

Observations for Weather & Climate

Saildrone

Five uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), known as saildrones, are being deployed from the US Virgin Islands and Florida in July to gather key data throughout the 2021 Tropical Atlantic hurricane season. The mission is in support of hurricane monitoring and prediction and is a joint project between AOML, CIMAS, PMEL, CICOES, and Saildrone, Inc. These saildrones are equipped with specially designed “hurricane wings” to enable them to operate in extreme conditions. The mission aims to improve understanding and predictability of tropical cyclone intensity changes and advance knowledge of the ocean-atmosphere interactions that fuel them.

To learn more visit the AOML/ PMEL Saildrone webpage.

Saildrone web page

Recent News

Heat extremes are the number one weather-related cause of death in the United States, prompting the climate community to study the driving forces behind these extreme events to improve their prediction. A new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research finds an increase in summertime heat wave occurrence over the US Great Plains is linked to a larger than normal tropical Atlantic warm pool.

Study Finds that a Larger than Normal Atlantic Warm Pool Can Lead to an Increase in US Heat Waves

November 21, 2022

Heat extremes are the number one weather-related cause of death in the United States, prompting the climate community to study the driving forces behind these extreme events to improve their prediction. A new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research finds an increase in summertime heat wave occurrence over the US Great Plains is linked to a larger than normal tropical Atlantic warm pool.

Read Story

November 1, 2022

Atlantic Coast Hurricanes Intensifying Faster Than Forty Years Ago

September 7, 2022

First Cruise in Three Years in Support of the South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation Project

August 31, 2022

State of the Climate in 2021 Report Released

August 18, 2022

AOML’s Physical Oceanography Division Welcomes Renellys Perez as the New Deputy Director

Featured Publication

A screen shot of the "Increasing Hurricane Intensification Rate Near the US Atlantic Coast" publication.

November 15, 2022

Balaguru, K., Foltz, G. R., Leung, L. R., Xu, W., Kim, D., Lopez, H., & West, R. (2022). Increasing hurricane intensification rate near the US Atlantic coast. Geophysical Research Letters, 49(20), e2022GL099793.

Plain Language Summary: While hurricanes pose a significant socioeconomic threat in general, those that intensify close to the coast are particularly challenging for operational forecasters and decision makers. Past studies examined basin-scale changes in hurricane intensification and the large-scale environment in the Atlantic. However, near-coastal changes in hurricane intensification have not been extensively studied. Herein, we address this using a combination of observations and numerical model simulations. Analysis of hurricane track data for the period 1979–2018 indicates that the mean hurricane intensification rate has increased significantly near the Atlantic coast…

Download Full Paper.

Increasing Hurricane Intensification Rate Near the US Atlantic Coast

November 15, 2022

Download Full Paper.

Looking for scientific literature? Visit our Publication Database.

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Technology Frontiers: Underwater Gliders

Gliding Through the Blue Frontier

A new wave of hurricane hunting technology. Click to view the storymap.

Driving Innovative Science

Project Report

This project report provides highlights of ongoing research projects that are either led by or involve AOML scientists together with essential science support personnel from NOAA, the University of Miami/Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS), and our international partners.

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Contact

Rick Lumpkin

Director, Physical Oceanography Division

| Rick Lumpkin, Ph.D.