A new study compared wind data alongside Sargassum Inundation Risk (SIR) maps against citizen science reports from the coasts of Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, and Caribbean regions. The study found that including shoreward wind velocity greatly improves the agreement with coastal observations of Sargassum beaching compared to SIR indicators alone.
Accurate hurricane track and intensity forecasts are crucial for early preparation, but hurricane models have trade offs. High-resolution models improve hurricane intensity prediction than low-resolution models, but the high-resolution models are more prone to errors.
A new fire emissions inventory, providing publicly available data on trace gases and aerosols from global fires for the years 2002 through 2021, add improvements to previous inventory.
For over 20 years, a fleet of almost 4,000 Argo floats have measured ocean temperature and salinity across the globe. The eventual plan calls for floats to be evenly spaced across the global oceans, but a new study examines whether uniform spacing is the most effective float configuration.
Concern over the ongoing marine heat wave across South Florida and the surrounding region led NOAA scientists to check on Cheeca Rocks, an inshore reef within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Scientists visited on July 31 and August 1, 2023, and what they found was bleak.
The 120-day Tropical Pacific Observing System (TPOS) 2023 Saildrone Mission officially began on June 22, 2023, just after the official start of what experts suggest may be a strong El Niño.
Registration is open for the Earth's Radiation Budget Science Meeting. The meeting will be held at NCAR/UCAR's Center Green Campus in Boulder, Colorado, from November 6 to November 8, 2023.
Phytoplankton strongly influence ocean carbon storage, so scientists want to understand what affects these tiny organisms. A new study identifies solar radiation as the most important driver of phytoplankton biomass.
NOAA’s National Hurricane Center has a new model to help produce hurricane forecasts this season. The Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS) was put into operations on June 27 and will run alongside existing models for the 2023 season before replacing them as NOAA’s premier hurricane forecasting model.
A marine heatwave has spread across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean with temperatures ranging between one and three degrees Celsius (~2-4.5˚F) above average. Ocean temperatures around south Florida are the warmest on record for the month of July (dating back to 1981).