Data from a long-distance research cruise provide new insights into carbon cycling in the eastern Pacific and Southern Oceans.
Southern Ocean
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Robot Measures Air-Sea Carbon Dioxide Exchange in Southern Ocean
Unique air and ocean surface observations of the Southern Ocean from a 22,000 km, 196-day circumnavigation around Antarctica by an Uncrewed Surface Vehicle.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
The Alkalinity Trap at the Bottom of the World
Tiny microorganisms in the Southern Ocean affect the way the rest of the world’s seas respond to carbon dioxide.
Posted inNews
Larger Waves in Store as the Planet Warms
By the end of the 21st century, waves will have gotten larger in some ocean basins, particularly the Southern Ocean, climate modeling reveals.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Explaining Cold and Fresh Southern Polar Ocean Surface Waters
Global climate models do not reproduce observed trends of the Southern polar ocean surface, but an increase in wind-transported sea ice that melts and inhibits mixing may account for the disparity.
Posted inNews
A Subglacial Lake in Antarctica Churns Out Nutrients
Eight hundred meters below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, microbes in subglacial Lake Whillans create organic carbon that helps power the Southern Ocean’s vast food chain.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Ship-Based Measurements Overestimate Southern Ocean Carbon Sink
New research suggests that combining ship- and float-based observations provides a more accurate measure of how much carbon the Southern Ocean absorbs.
Posted inNews
Drilling into the Past to Predict the Future
Climate change is at the center of a remarkable international drilling operation into Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Creating Icebergs in Ocean Models Coupled to Ice Shelves
Modeling icebergs as Lagrangian elements held together by numerical bonds provides insights into coupled exchanges of heat, freshwater, and momentum between large icebergs and the ocean.
Posted inNews
Warm Water Is Rapidly Eroding Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf
The underside of the world’s largest ice shelf is melting—by meters per year in some places—because of the seasonal inflow of water heated by the Sun, observations of the White Continent reveal.