Feature Publication Archive
Bond, N.A., M.F. Cronin, H. Freeland, and N. Mantua (2015): Causes and impacts of the 2014 warm anomaly in the NE Pacific. Geophys. Res. Lett., 42(9), 3414–3420, doi:10.1002/2015GL063306.
Remarkably high sea surface temperature anomalies developed in the NE Pacific Ocean during the winter of 2013/14. This caught the attention of Nick Bond of the University of Washington’s Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean (JISAO)—who started calling the mass of warm water the “Blob”—and Meghan Cronin of NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL). Their objective was to determine the relative importance of the various upper ocean temperatures that could have been responsible for this short-term climate event.
As detailed in this recent article... more »
Quinn, P.K., D.B. Collins, V.H. Grassian, K.A. Prather, and T.S. Bates (2015): Chemistry and related properties of freshly emitted sea spray aerosol. Chem. Rev., doi: 10.1021/cr500713g.
Clouds, which cover about 60% of the Earth at any given time, have a large impact on the planet’s radiation balance by reflecting solar radiation back to space and trapping infrared radiation emitted by the surface. Clouds only form through the condensation of water vapor onto atmospheric particulates known as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Whether a particle is able to act as a CCN depends on its size and chemical composition. Optically thin clouds that persist in marine regions are particularly susceptible to changes in the concentration, size, and composition of atmospheric... more »
Gas-filled bubbles of lava during eruption phase, Hades vent, West Mata volcano.
Dziak, R.P., D.R. Bohnenstiehl, E.T. Baker, H. Matsumoto, J. Caplan-Auerbach, R.W. Embley, S.G. Merle, S.L. Walker, T.-K. Lau, and W.W. Chadwick, Jr. (2015): Long-term explosive degassing and debris flow activity at West Mata submarine volcano. Geophys. Res. Lett., 42(5), doi:10.1002/2014GL062603.
Even though ~75% of Earth's volcanic activity occurs below the sea surface, many questions remain on the longevity and acoustic characteristics of explosive seafloor eruptions. To date, only two active eruptions have ever been observed visually in the deep-ocean (>500 m) volcanoes, and then only over time periods of hours to days. The discovery of the actively erupting West Mata volcano in the NE Lau Basin near Samoa offered a rare opportunity to investigate a deep-ocean, explosive eruption. Video images of West Mata collected by remotely operated vehicle (ROV) provided unprecedented... more »
A New Robust Sensor for Extended Autonomous Measurements of Surface Ocean Dissolved Inorganic Carbon
Fassbender, A.J., C.L. Sabine, N. Lawrence-Slavas, E.H. De Carlo, C. Meinig, and S. Maenner Jones (2015): Robust sensor for extended autonomous measurements of surface ocean dissolved inorganic carbon. Environ. Sci. Tech., doi: 10.1021/es5047183.
The ocean plays an important role in global climate through the transport and storage of carbon, yet it is unclear how ocean warming and acidification will influence ocean carbon cycling on societally relevant timescales. This uncertainty is largely due to the challenges in developing autonomous marine sensors with the accuracy and endurance needed for long-term observational efforts that can resolve environmental variability. In addition, two carbonate system parameters must be measured simultaneously in order to fully constrain seawater carbonate chemistry and to quantitatively assess... more »
Chiodi, A.M., and D.E. Harrison (2015): Equatorial Pacific easterly wind surges and the onset of La Niña events. J. Climate, 28 (2), 776-792, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00227.1.
It has become well accepted that Westerly Wind Events (WWE) lasting for about a week play a fundamental role in the onset and maintenance of El Niño events in the tropical Pacific. In this paper we show that there are wind events of similar size and duration that appear to play a similar role in the onset and maintenance of La Niña events. We call these wind events Easterly Wind Surges (EWSs). They have been previously overlooked in studies of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation phenomenon because they do not stand out in wind (speed) records in the same way that WWEs do; only when looking at... more »