Feature Publication Archive
Spectrograms from Axial instrument illustrating the 2 primary song sequences observed.
Regional map of the northeast Pacific Ocean showing locations of all instruments used in this study, along with a timeline indicating when they were deployed. At the scale of this map, KENE and KEMF are effectively co-located, but KENE is displayed slightly offset to the north for clarity (AX, Axial; CI, Cascadia Initiative; CZ, COLZA).
Weirathmueller, M.J., K.M. Stafford, W.S.D. Wilcock, R.P. Dziak, and A.M. Tréhu (2017): Spatial and temporal trends in fin whale vocalizations recorded in the NE Pacific Ocean between 2003-2013. PLoS ONE, 12 (10), e0186127, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0186127.
Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) spend most of their lives ranging widely throughout ocean basins and thus can be extremely difficult to study. Nevertheless, understanding the fin whales’ population structure is of particular importance for management and recovery efforts due to their status as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Fin whales produce relatively simple, repeated signals that appear to have not changed significantly over time. The most commonly observed vocalization produced by fin whales—the “20 Hz pulse”—has been recorded throughout the world’... more »
Map of PMEL Atmospheric Chemistry Cruises conducted between 1992 and 2016
Reddington, C.L., K.S. Carslaw, P. Stier, N. Schutgens, H. Coe, D. Liu, J. Allan, J. Browse, K.J. Pringle, L.A. Lee, M. Yoshioka, J.S. Johnson, L.A. Regayre, D.V. Spracklen, G.W. Mann, A. Clarke, M. Hermann, S. Henning, H. Wex, T.B. Kristensen, W.R. Leaitch, U. Pöschl, D. Rose, M.O. Andreae, J. Schmale, Y. Kondo, N. Oshima, J.P. Schwarz, A. Nenes, B. Anderson, G.C. Roberts, J.R. Snider, C. Leck, P.K. Quinn, X. Chi, A. Ding, J.L. Jimenez, and Q. Zhang (2017): The Global Aerosol Synthesis and Science Project (GASSP): Measurements and modeling to reduce uncertainty. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 98 (9), 1857–1877, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00317.1.
Quinn, P.K., D.J. Coffman, J.E. Johnson, L.M. Upchurch, and T.S. Bates (2017): Small fraction of marine cloud condensation nuclei made up of sea spray aerosol. Nature Geosci., 10, 674–679, doi:10.1038/ngeo3003.
Atmospheric aerosol particles affect the Earth’s radiation balance directly by scattering and absorbing incoming solar radiation. In addition, aerosol particles are required for clouds to form. Particles serve as surfaces for water vapor to condense onto which allows droplets to grow large enough to form clouds. The particles that nucleate cloud droplets are called cloud condensation nuclei, or CCN. Through these mechanisms, aerosols lead to changes in regional climate, atmospheric circulation, clouds, and precipitation. Despite the significance of these impacts, aerosols are the... more »
Time series of annual average global integrals of in situ estimates of upper (0–700 m) OHCA (1 ZJ = 10²¹ Joules) for 1993–2016 with standard errors of the mean.
Johnson, G.C. (2017): Overview. In State of the Climate in 2016, Global Oceans. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 98 (8), S63
Johnson, G.C., J.M. Lyman, T. Boyer, C.M. Domingues, J. Gilson, M. Ishii, R. Killick, D. Monselan, and S. Wijffels (2017): Ocean heat content. In State of the Climate in 2016, Global Oceans. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 98 (8), S66–S69
Johnson, G.C., J. Reagan, J.M. Lyman, T. Boyer, C. Schmid, and R. Locarnini (2017): Salinity. In State of the Climate in 2016, Global Oceans. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 98 (8), S69–S75
Feely, R.A., R. Wanninkhof, P. Landschützer, B.R. Carter, and J.A. Triñanes (2017): Ocean carbon. In State of the Climate in 2016, Global Oceans. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 98 (8), S89–S92.
Overland, J., E. Hanna, I. Hanssen-Bauer, S.-J. Kim, J.E. Walsh, M. Wang, U.S. Bhatt, and R.L. Thoman (2017): Arctic air temperature. In State of the Climate in 2016, The Arctic. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 98 (8), S130–S131.
NOAA has led, for 27 years, a team of international scientists in issuing annual reports on the state of the climate focusing on the year just passed. The State of the Climate in 2016 report, published as a supplement to Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society in August 2017, is the most recent release of this report. Seven Federal, JISAO (Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington), and JIMAR (Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, University of Hawaii) scientists resident at PMEL co-authored four of twelve sections in the... more »
A Saildrone departs Dutch Harbor, AK in 2016 on it's way to test sensors on this platform for multi-disciplinary science
Mordy, C.W., E. Cokelet, A. DeRobertis, R. Jenkins, C. Meinig, C. Berchok, J. Crance, J. Cross, C. Kuhn, N. Lawrence-Slavas, P. Stabeno, J. Sterling, H. Tabisola, and I. Wangen (2017): Advances in ecosystem research: Saildrone surveys of oceanography, fish and marine mammals in the Bering Sea. Oceanography, 30, 2, doi:10.5670/oceanog.2017.230.
This month's featured article provides an overview of the first Saildrone mission conducted jointly between NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL).
The Saildrone is an autonomous surface vehicle outfitted with meteorological and oceanographic sensors, including passive and active acoustics. In 2016, NOAA used the Saildrone to survey the Bering Sea, a region known for its harsh conditions (e.g., storms, low light, biofouling) and high level of biological productivity. The mission was a success, and the Saildrone proved... more »
Maersk Mandraki breaks moorings during the 2004 Sumatra Tsunami. The 285-m container ship was pulled out of the Port of Salalah, Oman, drifted around the breakwater, and nearly struck the breakwater on the ocean side (Image courtesy of Jose Borrero).
Lynett, P.J., K. Gately, R. Wilson, L. Montoya, D. Arcas, B. Aytore, Y. Bai, J.D. Bricker, M.J. Castro, K.F. Cheung, C.G. David, G.G. Doğan, C. Escalante, J.M. González-Vida, S.T. Grilli, T.W. Heitmann, J.J. Horrillo, U. Kânoglu, R. Kian, J.T. Kirby, W. Li, J. Macías, D.J. Nicolsky, S. Ortega, A. Pampell-Manis, Y.S. Park, V. Roeber, N. Sharghivand, M. Shelby, F. Shi, B. Tehranirad, E. Tolkova, H.K. Thio, D. Velioğlu, A.C. Yalçiner, Y. Yamazaki, A. Zaytsev, and Y..J. Zhang (2017): Inter-model analysis of tsunami-induced coastal currents. Ocean Model., 114, 14–32, doi:10.1016/j.ocemod.2017.04.003.
Over the last decade, a number of tsunami events originating from distant regions of the Pacific Ocean have impacted the US West Coast. In some cases, the arrival of tsunami waves associated with these events has coincided with low tide levels, such as the 2006 Kuril Islands (Russia) and 2011 Tohoku (Japan) events. This fortunate circumstance helped minimize inundation of dry land, but also illustrated that tsunami-induced water currents can result in severe damage to harbor facilities, moored vessels, and the waterfront infrastructure, in general.
Traditionally, the validation of... more »