Scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) have successfully installed an underway pCO2 system on the Research Vessel Falkor (too) as part of a new collaboration with the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Ocean Biogeochemistry Virtual Institute (OBVI), performing continuous surface measurements of the ocean’s accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide as the vessel sails across […]
Every year, scientists at AOML participate in the international effort led by the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute in developing the annual Global Carbon Budget Report, an assessment of global carbon emissions and the progress towards achieving the climate goals set by the 2016 Paris Agreement. The 2024 Global Carbon Budget Report now indicates […]
The air and surface temperature tip just above freezing. Cruiseliner Ponant’s 492-ft vessel Le Commandant Charcot floats idle at marked coordinates in the Arctic tundra between Alaska and Norway. On the aft deck, a team of scientists deploys Niskin bottles using a handcrank to the depths, collecting water samples 900 meters below an ocean blanketed […]
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 […]
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 […]
Global carbon dioxide emissions in 2022 remain at record levels and natural carbon sinks are being impacted by climate change, according to a report published last week by the Global Carbon Project.
On December 11, 2020 researchers with the Global Carbon Project released their annual update for the Global Carbon Budget. Daily global CO2 emissions are estimated to have decreased by a maximum of about 17% by early April 2020 compared to average levels in 2019. About half of this change is due to changes in surface transport, especially road transport, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Leticia Barbero is a chemical oceanographer at NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies at the University of Miami. In her role, she works with AOML to study the carbon dioxide system in the ocean, specifically ocean acidification in the coastal waters of the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of America.
Every year the Global Carbon Project publishes an authoritative observation based Global Carbon Budget detailing the annual release of fossil fuel carbon dioxide and the uptake by the terrestrial biosphere and oceans. In 2018 the global carbon emissions were still increasing, but their rate of increase had slowed. Global carbon emissions are set to grow more slowly in 2019, with a decline in coal burning offset by strong growth in natural gas use worldwide.
The ability to predict Earth’s future climate relies upon monitoring efforts to determine the fate of carbon dioxide emissions. For example, how much carbon stays in the atmosphere or becomes stored in the oceans or on land? The oceans in particular have helped to slow climate change as they absorb and then store carbon dioxide for thousands of years.
