Just over 66 years ago, one of the Navy’s most secretive communities began. Its members went by the code word SOSUS, which means “Sound Surveillance System.” A new front line in the Cold War, they had one mission: FIND SUBMARINES.
Lack of knowledge and information concerning oceanographic and acoustic conditions off the continental coasts hampered the U.S. Navy’s efforts against the submarine threat during World War II. It was apparent the German Navy had better information and a better understanding of how to use the Atlantic Ocean. Consequently, since the war, the U.S. Navy has maintained a continuous program of oceanographic surveys designed to provide more detailed information on currents, temperature, salinity, and other factors that comprise the oceanic environment and affect the transmission of sound in saltwater. The U.S. Navy was determined never to again lag behind others in its knowledge of this vital battlespace.
A NEMO float, which is part of the Argo program, sits atop the waters of the Arctic Ocean after being deployed from the German icebreaker Polarstern. Argo Program
The ocean is massive. It covers more than 70 percent of Earth s surface. The Pacific Ocean alone blankets 60 million square miles (155 million square kilometers) of the planet. This water regulates our climate and weather patterns by funneling heat from the equator to the poles, produces more than half of the world s oxygen, and absorbs 50 times more carbon dioxide than our atmosphere.
The secrets the ocean holds can tell us a lot about the state of the planet. But, getting to that info can be a challenge for both humans and scientific instruments, especially in treacherous areas where there are rocky seas, raging storms, thick ice and deep pressure-crushing waters.
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IMAGE: This close-up image of two pteropods of the species Limacina helicina provides a sense of how fragile the carbonate shells of the tiny sea snails are. view more
Credit: Credit: NOAA Ocean Acidification Program
Shelled pteropods, microscopic free-swimming sea snails, are widely regarded as indicators for ocean acidification because research has shown that their fragile shells are vulnerable to increasing ocean acidity.
A new study, published in the journal
Scientific Reports, shows that pteropods sampled off the coasts of Washington and Oregon made thinner shells than those in offshore waters. Along the coast, upwelling from deeper water layers brings cold, carbon dioxide-rich waters of relatively low pH to the surface. The research, by a team of Dutch and American scientists, found that the shells of pteropods collected in this upwelling region were 37 percent thinner than ones collected offshore.
Every other year, NOAA Fisheries conducts an acoustic-trawl survey from crewed research vessels to measure pollock abundance in Alaska’s eastern Bering Sea.
Researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are venturing this month to the North Pole to deploy instruments that will make year-round observations of the water beneath the Arctic ice cap. Scientists will investigate how the waters in the upper layers of the Arctic Ocean which insulate surface ice from warmer, deeper waters are changing from season to season and year to year as global climate fluctuates.
The Arctic expedition is part of a multi-year, multi-institutional program to establish a real-time, autonomous Arctic Observing Network. The WHOI researchers will work out of the North Pole Environmental Observatory, a yearly research camp on the ice that is organized and led by the University of Washington’s Polar Science Center.