Feature Publication Archive
The Bay of Bengal, with the location of the instrumented buoy shown by the blue dot. Credit Sarah Battle, NOAA PMEL
McPhaden, M.J., K. Athulya, M.S. Girishkumar, and M. Orlic (2024): Ekman revisited: Surface currents to the left of the winds in the Northern Hemisphere. Sci. Adv., 10(46), eadr0282, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr0282.
Rare observations of surface currents to the left of winds in the Bay of Bengal
One of the foundational principles of modern oceanography is that ocean surface currents on our rotating planet will be deflected to the right of the winds in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left of the winds in the Southern Hemisphere.
While this principle, first explained by the Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman in 1905, applies everywhere on Earth, there's more to the story, including a twist described in new research by an international team led by a scientist with NOAA's... more »
(a) Long-term averages (1998-2022) of surface ocean CO2 fugacity observations from SOCATv2023, binned into 0.25° × 0.25° monthly grid cells, which are used in the development of RFR-LMEs. (b-d) Long-term averages (1998-2022) of monthly RFR-LME maps of surface ocean (b) CO2 partial pressure, (c) pH on the total scale, and (d) calcium carbonate saturation state with respect to aragonite.
Sharp, J.D., L.-Q. Jiang, B.R. Carter, P.D. Lavin, H.L. Yoo, and S. Cross (2024): A mapped dataset of surface ocean acidification indicators in large marine ecosystems of the United States. Sci. Data, 11, 715, doi: 10.1038/s41597-024-03530-7.
Humans generate about 36 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution every year, about 30 percent of which are absorbed by the oceans. While that means there's less carbon dioxide (CO2) heating the atmosphere, the result is that the chemistry of the ocean is changing in profound and damaging ways, especially for marine organisms that grow hard shells.
Now, scientists from NOAA and two cooperative institutes have developed spatially and temporally consistent maps of ocean acidification indicators covering U.S. large marine ecosystems (LME) from 1998 to 2022. The work was led... more »
History of the Bering Sea cold pool extent based on NOAA Fishery bottom trawl surveys (note there are no data in 2020). Credit: NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service
Overland, J.E., E. Siddon, G. Sheffield, T. Ballinger, and C. Szuwalski (2024): Transformative ecological and human impacts from climate change and diminished sea ice in the northern Bering Sea. Wea. Climate Soc., 16(2), 303–313, doi: 10.1175/WCAS-D-23-0029.1, View open access article at AMS.
Unprecedentedly low sea ice cover in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas during back-to-back winters from 2018 to 2019 caused a cascade of impacts that abruptly transformed the regional marine ecosystem, compounding challenges faced by the communities that rely on it.
A new paper authored by scientists from NOAA Research, NOAA Fisheries and the University of Alaska examined how the loss of sea ice delivered an... more »
TPOS 2017 mission. Saildrone #1006 (SD1006) track, coloured by SST measured at 0.6 m.
Cronin, M.F., D. Zhang, S.M. Wills, J.E. Reeves Eyre, L.-A. Thompson, and N. Anderson (2024): Diurnal warming rectification in the tropical Pacific linked to sea surface temperature front. Nature Geosci., doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01391-8, View open access article at Nature Publishing (external link).
Over the past 20 years, researchers have been studying how the atmosphere reacts to changing ocean temperatures globally, sparking debates on the exact mechanisms at play.
Using advanced tools like uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), moored ocean buoys, and satellite data, a new study published in Nature Geoscience investigates how changes in ocean surface temperature affect our atmosphere's stability and movement. Focusing on the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator, this work uncovers... more »
Special issue of Oceanography exploring 50 years of PMEL history and accomplishments. The cover illustration depicts many of the technologies that support research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). (Cover illustration with technologies identified)
Oceanography, Volume 36 (2-3) October 2023
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory: 50 Years of Innovative Research in Oceanography
Fifty years ago, NOAA created a new environmental research laboratory in Seattle with an initial focus on water quality in Puget Sound, and environmental studies of the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea.
Since then, the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory has evolved into one of the world's leading ocean research institutes, specializing in observing ocean conditions from tsunamis to changes in climate and ocean chemistry with the aid of innovative instrumentation and measurement strategies often developed by the lab.
To recognize PMEL's half-century of accomplishments, the... more »