PMEL in the News
Majority of Washington falls into drought
Washington’s hottest August on record worsened precipitation deficits, leading to more than half the state being classified Thursday as in “moderate drought,” according to climatologists.
Billionaire’s gift pushes ocean sensors deeper in search of global warming’s hidden heat
Every day, thousands of robotic floats bob up and down, tracking temperatures in the world's oceans, which sop up an estimated 90% of the heat from global warming. In the course of a decade, the international Argo array has provided one of the steadiest signatures of the effect of greenhouse gas emissions. But Argo has its limits. The floats go no deeper than 2000 meters, warded off by the crushing pressures at greater depths.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen partners with NOAA to explore climate changes in deep ocean water
As we’re breaking records for high temperatures around the globe and watching forest fires blaze across the Northwest, you can thank the planet’s oceans for saving us from even hotter temps. Because as humans have pumped carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, most of that additional energy has gone into the oceans, warming the water instead of the air.
NOAA teams with Paul G. Allen Philanthropies to expand deep ocean observations
September 7, 2017In a groundbreaking public-private partnership, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory will deploy a large array of new deep ocean floats to expand ocean observations in a key area of the western South Atlantic Ocean.
Seattle billionaire Paul Allen bankrolls deep ocean climate-change project
Seattle oceanographer Greg Johnson has been working for years to drum up support and funding for his “dream” project: A flotilla of aquatic robots to monitor the depths of the world’s oceans, where no light penetrates and crushing pressure would pulverize conventional instruments.