Projects
Monitoring a sea floor volcano eruption at West Mata (south of Samoa) in 2010
The Acoustics Program is an ocean sound research group that develops and provides acoustic tools, technologies, and services to address a wide variety of NOAA missions. Using autonomous stationary hydrophones, mobile platforms such as ocean gliders and floats equipped with acoustic sensors, and cabled observatories the Acoustics group studies both natural and anthropogenic sounds in the marine environment.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/acoustics/
Summer sea ice seen by the North Pole Web Cam
Integrated, multi-disciplinary high latitude research, conducted by a consortium of PMEL principal investigators, using a variety of conventional, remotely controlled and autonomous platforms.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/arctic/
Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) used for atmospheric sampling
Using decades of PMEL aerosol measurements, the Atmospheric Chemistry group has shown that oceanic phytoplankton sulfur emissions are not the major source of cloud condensation nuclei to he marine atmosphere. This work has renewed the importance of understanding the direct emissions of sea spray to the atmosphere as a major source of sub-micrometer particles.
Project URL: https://saga.pmel.noaa.gov/
Climate-Weather Interface (CWI) - Research focus lies in evaluation of the current ocean observing systems and their effectiveness for monitoring patterns of significant global climate variability and tropical air-sea interaction, with the goals of assisting the prediction of seasonal weather and extreme climate events. Research activities include investigating how weather and climate are connected through subseasonal variability and how observations should be made to benefit subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) prediction.
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Undersea cabled observatories on the Juan de Fuca ridge at Axial Seamount.
The Earth–Ocean Interactions group is renowned for interdisciplinary seafloor and water column processes work at numerous volcanic and hydrothermal sites around the globe. The group discovers unique chemosynthetic ecosystems and studies biogeochemical processes of global importance that address the NOAA goals of healthy oceans, technology development, and ocean stewardship. The Earth–Ocean Interactions group researchers are developing and deploying new technology on undersea cabled observatories on the Juan de Fuca ridge at Axial Seamount.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/eoi/
Real-Time Biophysical Oceanographic Mooring "M2" has beeen maintained in the Bering Sea since 2006.
The Ecosystem and Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (EcoFOCI) group uses biophysical moorings, satellite-tracked drifters, remote sensing, hydrographic and atmospheric measurements, and numerical models to examine the changing ecosystems of the Chukchi Sea, Bering Sea, Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and the Arctic. The program is built upon multidisciplinary collaborations that explore ecosystem components ranging from climate to biological predators. EcoFOCI researchers work with scientists at the National Marine Fisheries
Engineering innovations at PMEL are multidisciplinary in nature and are driven by the formation of teams that integrate research and engineering to solve difficult ocean and atmospheric observing challenges. PMEL Engineering's objective is twofold: 1) to support PMEL field systems with engineering services, and 2) to foster technological innovation by pushing the limits of ocean and atmospheric observing platforms and sensors that advance NOAA research and operations.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/edd/
Argo profiling float deployment
Atlas buoy with Sagar Kanya in background
The Global Tropical Moored Buoy Array group is working with the National Weather Service (NWS) to finalize the transition of operational responsibility for the TAO array to NWS Operations. Using data from the array, PMEL researchers continue their research on ENSO events and assess their impacts on global weather patterns.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/gtmba
Global propagation of the Tohoku Japan (East Coast of Honshu) tsunami of March 11, 2011
NOAA Center for Tsunami Research (NCTR) is developing and testing new and improved modeling capabilities for both real-time tsunami forecasts, for use during tsunami warning operations, and community-based tsunami hazard assessment efforts. New generation tsunami models will provide estimates of currents resulting from tsunamis in ports and harbors, and incorporate the stage of the tide into predictions to increase timeliness and accuracy of tsunami forecasts.
Project URL: https://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/
The ocean carbon group acquires in situ measurements from moorings
The Ocean Carbon group has focused its efforts on understanding the ocean’s role in uptake and redistribution of natural and anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere. The details of this uptake and storage as well as the mechanisms controlling them are still not fully understood. Continued monitoring and scientific analysis of the ocean carbon cycle is critical to understand how the ocean sink for anthropogenic CO2 is functioning and how the carbon storage might change in the future.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/
Ocean Climate Station: Kuroshio Extension Observatory (KEO) surface mooring
The Ocean Climate Stations group maintains two OceanSITES reference station moorings: the Kuroshio Extension Observatory (KEO) in the western North Pacific, initiated in 2004, and Station Papa in the eastern North Pacific, which was first deployed in 2007. OCS moorings contribute to the global network of OceanSITES reference stations and their data are used world-wide to assess numerical weather prediction and climate reanalyses and satellite products.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/ocs/
Green anemones Anthopleura elegantissima
PMEL Ocean Molecular Ecology group seeks to leverage the advances in molecular biology to scale biological analyses with physical and chemical processes and allow for the characterization of marine ecosystems' response to climate change.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/ocean-molecular-ecology/
The Solomon Sea spray glider measuring the Pacific Western Boundary Currents
The Pacific Western Boundary Currents group began exploratory missions in the Solomon Sea with sub-surface ocean gliders, crossing the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent in late 2007. This project was motivated by the inability of the large-scale networks to observe fluctuations of the equatorward western boundary currents, and by the centrality of those currents in the meridional exchanges that contribute to ENSO. The ENSO signal in this western boundary current is seen to be a first-order contribution to the equatorial mass and heat balance.
Project URL: https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/wbc/
The PMEL Science Data Integration Group (SDIG) is devoted to data management, data integration management and its related software development. This group has developed core technologies that are used by various groups in NOAA as well as entities outside NOAA to manage, access and visualize scientific data assets. Other tools and frameworks, such as the Environmental Research Division's Data Access Program (ERDDAP), supplement the in-house developed software.
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