PMEL in the News
Scientists hope to steer robotic surfboards into hurricanes
For decades, atmospheric scientists have targeted hurricanes by land, sea and air, flying airplanes into their cores to collect measurements from the belly of the beast. Now, a joint venture between Saildrone Inc. and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is taking a new approach: drive winged, robotic surfboards into the path of an approaching storm. Chris Meinig is quoted.
Wait, There’s Noise Pollution at the Bottom of the Ocean?
How do you determine the health of a marine ecosystem that exists nearly 11,000 meters under the sea? Apparently, all you have to do is listen. And listening is exactly what National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration oceanographer Robert Dziak and a team of researchers did in 2015, when they dropped specialized acoustic equipment into Challenger Deep, an area located in the Pacific Ocean at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
Surprising tsunami triggers may lurk off California’s coast, scientists say
Although California’s most dangerous tsunamis come from thousands of miles away, scientists say they’ve pinpointed a wave trigger that’s much closer to home. Earthquakes along strike-slip faults can cause potentially dangerous waves in certain contexts, a new model shows — and such faults do exist right off parts of the Golden State’s shores. Diego Arcas commented on the publication.
The Reuters Hot List
This series tells the stories of the scientists who are having the biggest impact on the climate-change debate – their lives, their work and their influence on other scientists, the public, activists and political leaders. To identify the 1,000 most influential scientists, we created the Hot List, which is a combination of three rankings. Drs. Mike McPhaden and Richard Feely are on the list.
Understanding the Arctic polar vortex
In late February, as the Southern Plains and Gulf Coast suffered through an unusually strong blast of wintry weather, weather talk turned to the polar vortex and the possibility that the extreme cold was yet another example of weather-gone-wild due to global warming. In this article, we’re talking to two NOAA experts, including PMEL's Jim Overland, about the devastating extreme cold event, the polar vortex, and the potential link to global warming.