oceans

Key Points: March 12–15 saw the most intense severe weather outbreak of the year through March 31 after powerful storms brought baseball-sized hail and more than 20 tornadoes to portions of the Midwest, resulting in significant damage…

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, environmentalist, conservationist, and writer during the Great Environmental Awakening (1960-1973). She is known best for Silent Spring (1962) that challenged the use of chemical pesticides,…

Highlights: Temperatures were above average over much of the globe, while parts of western North America, central Asia, and western Australia were cooler than average.  Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent and Antarctic sea ice extent…

The world’s ocean is constantly moving. Ocean currents (movement of water from one location to another) are easier to see closer to shore, but currents are found from the ocean's surface down to the seafloor. The Atlantic Meridional…

NCEI is excited to announce the release of the newest member of the GHCN suite of data products. The Global Historical Climatology Network hourly (GHCNh) is NCEI’s next generation hourly large-scale dataset composed of weather station…

The event of the decade is set to occur next week—a total solar eclipse is ready to travel across America from Texas to Maine. In order to view this special event, climate conditions all need to be in alignment. In honor of Earth Month,…

Coral reefs are some of the oldest, most diverse ecosystems on Earth, and among the most valuable. They nurture 25% of all ocean life, protect coasts from storms and add billions of dollars yearly to the global economy through their…

NOAA and its partners have released the latest Regional Climate Impacts and Outlooks, which recap winter conditions and provide insight into what might be expected this spring. Winter Temperature Recap The meteorological winter…

Marine heatwaves occurred in many parts of the world in 2023Matt Cardy/Getty Not only was 2023 the hottest year ever recorded, many other key indicators of global heating, such as sea level rise, ocean heat,…

In the effort to combat the catastrophic impacts of global warming, we must accelerate carbon emissions reduction efforts and rapidly scale strategies to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and the oceans. The…

Marine heatwaves occurred in many parts of the world in 2023Matt Cardy/Getty Not only was 2023 the hottest year ever recorded, many other key indicators of global heating, such as sea level rise, ocean heat,…

When educational lessons teach continental drift (that all of the continents were once connected), it is Alfred Wegener who is associated with the theory. Few hear of Marie Tharp, the pioneering mapmaker who discovered the Mid-Atlantic…

While undertaking a systematic policy review, this research paper examined various sources, including scholarly journals, books, legal documents, and policy papers, as shown in Figure 1. It is important to note that this paper focused on…

NCEI is proud to be entering their 10th year of partnership with the NASA DEVELOP Program! This unique internship opportunity allows early and transitioning-career scientists to get hands-on field experience using NASA Earth science…

The layers you see in this image were once iron-rich and silica-rich sediments that settled on an ancient sea floor 2.7–2.4 billion years ago. Credit: The Australian…

Mars’ orbit has an impact on Earth’s oceans and climate in cycles of 2.4 million years, new research finds.NASA, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration In an astonishing cosmic cycle that occurs…

Mars' orbit has an impact on Earth's oceans and climate in cycles of 2.4 million years, new research finds. NASA…

The planets are in a gravitational dance around the sunShutterstock/Johan Swanepoel The gravitational tug of Mars may be strong enough to stir up Earth’s ocean, shifting its sediments as part of a 2.4-million-year…

Highlights: Temperatures were above average over much of the globe, but eastern Asia, much of Greenland, and parts of Antarctica were cooler than average.  There is a 45% chance that 2024 will be the warmest year in NOAA’s 175-year…

Is Antarctic sea ice undergoing a permanent change?Photodynamic/Shutterstock The sea ice that encircles Antarctica has reached near-record low levels for the third year in a row, raising concerns that the ice has…

Nine years ago South Africa put in place an innovative information management system designed to monitor and protect its seas. The country is surrounded by the Atlantic and Indian oceans on its southern, eastern and western borders.…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Months of record breaking temperatures and the El Niño weather phenomenon pushed the heating up of the world's…

Hexagonal frames called reef stars are installed in degraded areas to stabilise loose rubble and kickstart rapid coral growthThe Ocean Agency Restored coral reefs can grow just as quickly as healthy reefs in as…

Key Points: The 2023–24 winter season ranked warmest on record for the contiguous U.S. with eight states across the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast each observing their warmest winter on record.  The Smokehouse Creek wildfire…

Clownfish and anemones have a symbiotic relationshipwildestanimal/Getty Images The secret’s in the snot. Chemical changes in the mucus that coats a clownfish’s body can blunt the sting of its symbiotic anemone…

Chile experienced a severe wildfire earlier this yearZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy The planet just experienced the hottest February on record, with global average temperature rising 1.77°C above the pre-industrial average…

  There are a lot of superstitions that surround Leap Day...but how does February 29 affect science? Every four years we herald the arrival of an extra day in February. However, it’s a day that is both celebrated and loathed in the lives…

The basic principle of acoustic positioning with the white ship icon indicating the positions of the survey ship at different time. Credit: Satellite Navigation…

When the faecal matter produced by plankton sinks, it carries carbon from shallow waters to long-term storage deep in the ocean – now, researchers want to make the stuff sink faster

A satellite image of a phytoplankton bloom off the coast of St. John’s, N.L. Credit: NASA, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, MODIS Rapid Response Every year in the mid-latitudes of the…

A satellite image of a phytoplankton bloom off the coast of St. John’s, N.L. Credit: NASA, MODIS Rapid Response Every year in the…

(a) Annual mean global mean surface temperature above pre-industrial reference temperature (b) Change in annual mean total depth ocean heat content (OHC) relative to…

(a) Annual mean global mean surface temperature above pre-industrial reference temperature (b) Change in annual mean total depth ocean heat content (OHC) relative to…

Toronto, Ontario, Feb. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Royal Society of Canada (RSC) and Massey College are thrilled to present the third installment of the RSC Dialogues @ Massey series, Water is Life: Sustainability of Our Oceans.…

In this video message, NOS Deputy Assistant Administrator Rachael Dempsey shares how recent advancements in the GRAV-D project will help reduce risk for…

In this video message, NOS Assistant Administrator Nicole LeBoeuf celebrates the 25th anniversary of NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration. (Video Transcript)…

Workers clean oil from the rocks following a spill in Port Arthur, Texas in January 2010. In 1976, the tanker Argo Merchant grounded near Nantucket Shoals in Massachusetts. When…

Pyrosomes thrive in warmer seasMark Conlin / Alamy Strange colonial animals called pyrosomes are thriving in the north-east Pacific Ocean as it warms up, especially during marine heat waves. But according to a…

Christian Thorsberg Daily…

Dr. George Washington Carver has been largely known as “The Peanut Man” due to his involvement in seminal research of 325 uses for peanuts. However, he was also a prolific agricultural scientist and inventor who thrived in the fields of…

Diving northern gannetsKat Zhou/UPY 2024 Snowy-white northern gannets (Morus bassanus) plunge into icy waters off the Shetland Islands in Scotland in search of food in this action-packed photograph. The seabirds are…

The NCEI’s Ocean Climate Laboratory (OCL) has released the full World Ocean Atlas 2023 (WOA23) Global Climatologies of Temperature, Salinity, Dissolved Oxygen, and Inorganic Nutrients. This is a five year update to enhance the previous…

Pitcairn IslandsROYAL NAVY LIKE many British people, I have always been vaguely aware of the existence of a place called the Pitcairn Islands. I would have struggled to point to it on a map, let alone name which…

The new and improved underwater drone with two samplers, changeable batteries, and a longer cable, makes collecting seawater samples much easier for researchers.…

By Stephen Mihm Photographs by Christopher Perez…

How do we measure the temperature of the Earth? There are actually two different kinds of measurements needed because Earth is made up of land and water. Temperature on land is recorded by weather stations all over the world. Ocean…

Highlights: Temperatures were above average over much of the globe, but the eastern United States, most of Europe and a few other areas were cooler than average.  There is a 22% chance that 2024 will be the warmest year in NOAA’s…

Last month saw the publication of the 2023 State of the Geomagnetic Field Report. The report details the current state of Earth’s main magnetic field, and provides a performance analysis of the most recent version of the World Magnetic…

Joe Spring Associate Editor, Science…

Key Points: The arctic air mass from January 14–18 broke nearly 2,500 daily minimum temperatures county records from the Northwest to the Lower Mississippi Valley. On January 22–25, heavy rainfall brought more than a month’s worth of…