Recent research offers new insights into exchanges of water between the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas, which play critical roles in the climate-regulating Atlantic overturning circulation.
currents
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Causes Centennial Changes in the Indonesian Throughflow?
Transient long-term changes in the strength of the Indonesian Throughflow are unexpectedly linked to circulation changes in the remote high-latitude North Atlantic.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Tracking How Plastic Moves in the Coastal Ocean
Researchers used a wave tank to study the movement of plastic particles experimentally and to understand the role of particle density in drift behavior.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Improving Proxy Representations of Ocean Properties
Many oceanic properties are not directly observed but are instead estimated using proxy measurements. A new method uses physics-based correlations to reduce uncertainty in this relationship.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A Direct Bridge Between Tropical Cyclones and Ocean Eddies
Tropical cyclones can inject potential vorticity directly into ocean eddies—an alternative way for tropical cyclones to leave fingerprints on the ocean besides the traditional near-inertial wave.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Different El Niño, Different Paths of North Equatorial Current
Different types of El Niño have different impacts on the North Equatorial Current Bifurcation and can be extended to ocean circulations in the Pacific and the global climate system.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Larger Role for Shallow Intermediate Waters in Ocean Circulation
Water masses formed off southeastern Greenland may contribute more than previously thought to the variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which strongly influences global climate.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Different Eddy Transport for “Lazy” and “Athletic” Observers
Two specifications of fluid dynamics—taking measurements at a fixed point and following a fluid parcel—are compared for quantifying eddy transport in the ocean.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Submarine Rivers of Sediment
Turbidity currents move suspended sediment into the ocean. In general, the more sediment, the stronger the turbidity current, but one process may generate turbidity currents from very dilute rivers.
Posted inNews
Volcanic Eruption Creates Temporary Islands of Pumice
Rafts of pumice, spewed from an undersea volcano, recently appeared in the South Pacific. These transient, movable islands are important toeholds for marine life like barnacles, coral, and macroalgae.