Picture a calm, sunny day at a tropical beach. You look out at the ocean and in the distance a flotilla of small white clouds sails close to the waves. It’s ideal weather and typical of many days in the tropical Atlantic. However, scientists don’t fully understand how these ubiquitous clouds (a type of “shallow convective cloud”) form and impact the ocean, and it represents one of the largest uncertainties in predicting climate change.
New research by NOAA and a visiting scientist from India shows that warming of the Indo-Pacific Ocean is altering rainfall patterns from the tropics to the United States, contributing to declines in rainfall on the United States west and east coasts.
An expedition to the central Arctic will give scientists the first opportunity to study the dramatic changes sweeping across the top of the world for an entire year.
New research from NOAA and partners analyzing data from deep-diving ocean robots and research cruises shows that the coldest, near-bottom South Pacific waters originating from Antarctica are warming three times faster than they were in the 1990s.
A statement from Craig McLean, NOAA's Acting Chief Scientist and Assistant Administrator for NOAA's Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, on the passing of Paul Allen.
On Monday night, October 8, 2018, 10 drifting buoys were thrown from the hatch of a U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunter into the Gulf of Mexico so they could be in front of Hurricane Michael to help with hurricane forecasting.
A team of 20 NOAA scientists are in Goa, India, to meet with 200 of India’s leading ocean, atmosphere and fisheries scientists to mark a decade of productive collaboration on ocean and atmospheric observations, with life-saving economic benefits for both nations. The NOAA and Indian scientists will also board NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown to launch new observational buoys in the Indian Ocean to improve the vitally important Indian Ocean observing system of buoys, a key tool for India and the United States to forecast everything from monsoons to severe weather in the United States.
The NOAA Annual Science Report provides an overview of the agency’s research portfolio, and highlights a selection of NOAA’s Research and Development accomplishments. NOAA research aided emergency response efforts across the country in 2017, from wildfires in the western United States to hurricanes in east, advanced weather forecasting, improved fisheries management, and helped improve aquaculture production.
NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown steamed out of Charleston, South Carolina, on February 15, 2018, for a multi-stage trip around the world to improve ocean data that informs US and global weather prediction.
A new study suggests that targeted investments in expanding climate observing systems could return trillions of dollars in benefits in the decades to come.