In a few months, NASA will send an ocean wind-monitoring instrument to a berth on the International Space Station. That unique vantage point will give ISS-RapidScat the ability to observe daily (also called diurnal) cycles of wind created by solar heat.
Ocean waves, the hot sun, sea breezes -- the right combination makes a great day at the beach. A different combination makes a killer hurricane. The complex interactions of the ocean and the air above it that can create such different outcomes are not yet fully known. Scientists would especially like to understand the role that the daily heat of the sun plays in creating winds.
Winds contribute to motion in the ocean on every scale, from individual waves to currents extending thousands of miles. They affect local weather as well as large-scale, long-term climate patterns such as El Niño. Across the tropical Pacific, winds help or hinder local economies by allowing nutrient-rich water to well up from the ocean depths, nourishing marine life to the benefit of coastal fisheries, or blocking its upwelling.
A comparison of the current warming conditions to the pre-conditions of the 1997-98 El Niño.
Historically, every 2-7 years or so, the easterly trade winds relax or reverse abnormally, and the cold tongue is weakened or disappears. This abnormal warming in the cold tongue region (relative to the normal condition) is referred to as El Niño.
The normal condition of the tropical Pacific Ocean and atmosphere system is characterized by a warm pool of water in the west and a cold tongue of water in the east (off the coast of Peru), maintained by easterly trade winds that induce upwelling of cold subsurface water in the cold-tongue region and that push the warm-pool water towards the west.
PO.DAAC welcomed our UWG and NASA Headquarters officials for the annual meeting on 8-9 April 2014.
Alex Smith, Jessica Hausman, and Eric Tauer showcased PO.DAAC's SOTO visualization capabilities at the 2014 NASA/JPL Climate Day.
After the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 there was an immediate search to try to find the plane. When satellite images showed that debris was found at multiple locations in the Southern Ocean, over a thousand miles from the southwest coast of Australia, many questions arose about how to track such debris. Where did it come from? Where is it going? To aid in the quandary of debris movement, ocean currents were used. Ocean Surface Current Analyses Real-time (OSCAR), generated by Dr.
After the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 there was an immediate search to try to find the plane. When satellite images showed that debris was found at multiple locations in the Southern Ocean, over a thousand miles from the southwest coast of Australia, many questions arose about how to track such debris. Where did it come from? Where is it going? To aid in the quandary of debris movement, ocean currents were used. Ocean Surface Current Analyses Real-time (OSCAR), generated by Dr.
