What's New
July 2 - July 26: The Research Moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and Prediction (RAMA) in the Indian Ocean began in 2004 as an international effort to improve understanding and ability to predict variability associated with the monsoon system. The array is now 78% complete and continues to grow through the formation of new partnerships.
The newest RAMA partnership is between NOAA and the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST). KIOST recently launched a new all purpose research vessel, the R/V Isabu, and is conducting a cruise in partnership with NOAA/PMEL to service three RAMA moorings along 67°E in throughout July 2017. Initial planning has also commenced for an Indian Ocean-Climate Workshop in Korea in late 2017 to identify common themes for a collaborative Korea-US research program over the next five years. The KIOST-NOAA Partnership is an exciting development to facilitate exchange of ideas and sharing of resources for advancing Indian Ocean science.
RAMA complements other moored buoy arrays in the Atlantic (PIRATA) and Pacific (TAO/TRITON). To learn more about RAMA, visit PMEL’s Global Tropical Moored Buoy Array’s website here.
PMEL in the News
In 2014 the Bering Sea warmed, raising concerns that pollock populations would plummet as they did in the previous warm phase of 2001-2005. But a new study suggests that this time young pollock had alternative...
Greenland’s ice sheet is melting faster than expected, and this has been accelerating over the past two decades. It is now the biggest single contributor to global sea level rise, accounting for 25 percent of the total. But besides warming climes, there is another culprit for the melt: sunnier...
In July, three odd-looking, 23-foot-long sailboats will launch from a dock in Alaska's Dutch Harbor. They will meander the seas between the U.S. and Russia to track ice melt, measure the ...
Feature Publication
Deployment of pH sensors in the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute's test pool during an early phase of the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE competition.
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, human activity has increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the Earth’s atmosphere, with nearly 30% of that CO2 being absorbed by the oceans. Decades of observations have shown that the ocean’s absorption of CO2 results in a decline in seawater pH levels, thus changing the overall chemical composition of the ocean. This process, known as ocean acidification (OA), is occurring faster now than at... more