The warm current cools the tropical Pacific and strengthens trade winds.
Pacific Ocean
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Tool to Capture Marine Biological Activity Gets Coastal Upgrade
Upwelling hinders an efficient method to estimate a key measure of biological productivity in coastal waters, but accounting for surface temperatures could boost accuracy.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What American Samoan Corals Tell About El Niño’s History
Samoan corals record how patterns of warm/cool and more/less salty in the equatorial Pacific changed in space and time over the last 500 years.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Successful Testing of Technique to Measure Seafloor Strain
A new optical fiber interferometry strain sensor tested off the Oregon coast holds promising prospects for seafloor geodesy.
Posted inNews
Audio Reveals Sizes of Methane Bubbles Rising from the Seafloor
A sensitive underwater microphone captures the sounds of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, escaping into waters off the coast of Oregon. Using this sound, researchers can estimate the bubbles’ sizes.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Energetics of Western Boundary Current Surface Flows Are Similar
Despite different wind forcing and air-sea heating conditions, the surface layer energetics of two Western Boundary Current systems in different ocean basins are surprisingly similar.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
500 Years of Atmospheric River Landfalls in Southwestern USA
A network of tree-ring chronologies has been used to develop the first reconstruction of atmospheric river landfalls on the US Pacific Coast over the last 500 years.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Life and Death in the Deepest Depths of the Seafloor
Lacking light and energy, under-seafloor microbes rely on ancient organic materials to survive.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Unraveling Hemispheric Ocean Nitrate Supply Pathways
Subsurface measurements of nitrogen and oxygen isotope ratios in nitrate reveal a predominantly southern hemisphere supply of nitrate to the equatorial Pacific.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
The Long Reach of El Niño’s Broom
Both the El Niño Southern Oscillation and natural variations in tropical Pacific weather conditions impact surface air quality in the Eastern United States.