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Zoe Rand, currently a master’s student at St. Andrews University, analyzing acoustic data last summer. Zoe was working with Samara Haver and the PMEL Acoustics Program in Newport to analyze whale vocalizations in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Photo Credit: Samara Haver (OSU/NOAA PMEL).
The coronavirus pandemic response has reduced pollution from a large number of sources across many geographic regions. NOAA has launched a wide-ranging research effort to investigate the impact of reduced vehicle traffic, air travel, shipping, manufacturing, and other activities on Earth's atmosphere and oceans. Researchers are using the most advanced atmosphere-ocean models to look for changes in atmospheric composition, weather, climate, and precipitation over weeks to months. In the oceans, NOAA scientists will be assessing impacts of reduced underwater noise levels on marine life.
PMEL along with NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology, NOAA Sanctuaries and Department of Interior’s National Park Service are collaborating to analyze data from hydrophones deployed around the United States coastal waters to measure changes and assess any impacts on fisheries and marine mammal activity due to reduced maritime transportation and other maritime activities.
Read the full story from NOAA Research.
PMEL in the News
The University of Washington has scored big in two fields in which its research enjoys international renown -- ocean and climate research. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has selected the UW to lead a new Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies...
Climate change could trigger an ancient El Niño-like pattern in the Indian Ocean that would create extreme weather such as floods, storms and droughts across the globe. McPhaden is quoted.
Global warming is approaching a tipping point that during this century could reawaken an ancient climate pattern similar to El Niño in the Indian Ocean, new research led by scientists from The University of Texas at Austin has found. Mike McPhaden is quoted.
Feature Publication
,November storm in the western North Atlantic during the first North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystem Cruise. Photo credit: Christien Laber
NAAMES research cruise tracks & timing.
Wave-breaking at the ocean surface transports pockets of air from the atmosphere into the upper few meters of the ocean. This air forms bubbles and as these bubbles rise to the ocean surface they pick up organic compounds associated with ocean biological activity. When the bubbles burst at the surface they release atmospheric aerosols containing those organics plus inorganic sea salt. In addition, dimethylsulfide (DMS), derived from phytoplankton, is transferred from the ocean to the... more