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Research Highlights

Mr.-Crabs

Burrows on the beach

(Image courtesy of WHOI Creative, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Accessible Oceans

Swirling parcels of water, called ocean eddies, spin off from the warm Gulf Stream, the powerful northward-flowing current that hugs the U.S. East Coast before veering east across the Atlantic Ocean. This visualization was generated by a numerical model that simulates ocean circulation. WHOI researchers are studying western boundary ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream, and how their behavior can be associated with climate. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization © NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center

Modeling our climate future; WHOI to lead ocean current research

A water sampler known as a conductivity, temperature, depth (CTD) rosette is deployed from the research vessel Sikuliaq during a 2020 expedition as part of the NSF-funded Arctic Observing Network to understand long-term changes in waters of the far north. (Photo ©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Study Finds Growing Potential for Toxic Algal Blooms in the Alaskan Arctic

Whaling ship logbooks, like this one, from past centuries contain historical weather data, giving researchers a glimpse of what the climate was like years ago. That data now presents the opportunity to address contemporary questions of climate change. Photo by Jordan Goffin.

Project funded to digitize and mine weather data from whaling logbooks

Co-author Sujata Murty retrieving a coral core piece during the underwater drilling process.
Photo credit: Justin Ossolinski.

Review Evaluates the Evidence for an Intensifying Indian Ocean Water Cycle

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star enters the winter pack ice

A rare mission north

RoCS Photo

Science RoCS Initiative responds to need for increased ocean monitoring

(© Roger Fishman)

The ocean science-art connection

Data Dollies

Data with a side of sass

buoy

Amidst pandemic, researchers deploy new monitoring station in tropical Pacific

BGOS_2018-6_Hugo Sindelar

Tracking change in the Arctic Ocean

 An ocean network from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will give scientists a comprehensive view of the twilight zone, or mesopelagic, using several different technologies including moored buoys equipped with acoustic survey systems; a swarm of optical and geochemical sensors; and new fish-tracking tags that will continuously record the position of major predators such as sharks and tuna. All of these components will connect to the network’s buoys using acoustic signals underwater and an Iridium satellite link at the surface.

New observation network will provide unprecedented, long-term view of life in the ocean twilight zone

The Loop Current (orange) is like a big river of warm water that flows northward from the Caribbean Sea. It sometimes loops up close to Louisiana and then swoops back down through the Florida Straits and into the Atlantic Ocean. (Sea surface temperature image by the Ocean Remote Sensing Group, © Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory)

‘High-octane’ hurricane fuel swirls in the Gulf of Mexico

Australia satellite image of bushfire

Investigating the ocean’s influence on Australia’s drought

A SOCCOM (Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling) float like those that will be a part of the GO-BGC array being deployed from the Japanese research vessel Mirai in the Southern Ocean in 2019. (Image courtesy of SOCCOM. SOCCOM is supported by the National Science Foundation under NSF Award PLR-1425989 and OPP-1936222)

New multi-institutional grant will support a fleet of robotic floats

Melting ice on the Iceland and Greenland ice caps are major sources of fresh water into the North Atlantic, which contributes to sea level rise and potentially disrupts global ocean circulation.
(Photo by Laura Stevens, © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Two New Studies Substantially Advance Understanding of Currents that Help Regulate Climate

Amala Mahadevan

5 Questions with Dr. Amala Mahadevan