A Korean satellite provides an hourly view of the phytoplankton in the ocean, while also offering a testbed for future ocean-observing satellite missions.
Published Jun 21, 2016
Some of the clearest, bluest ocean waters on Earth are found in the South Pacific.
Published Oct 12, 2017
On June 10, 2011, NASA launched Aquarius/SAC-D, an international earth-monitoring satellite and NASA's first new spaceborne tool for studying the Earth since 2008.
Published Jun 11, 2011
In several decades of observing the ocean with satellites, our vision has changed as much as the sea.
Published Apr 30, 2019
The swirls of turquoise and green map out a large phytoplankton bloom along the shores of New Zealand’s South Island in this image from February 20, 2011.
Published Feb 26, 2011
The waters off of southwestern Africa are some of the most biologically productive in the world. They also provide a compelling backdrop for exploring how satellite sensors can reveal important details of the ocean.
Published Nov 1, 2017
When scientists corrected errors in ocean temperature data, a mysterious cooling trend that appeared to occur between 2003 and 2005 disappeared.
Published Nov 6, 2008
Scientists read the bumps on the ocean surface to understand the shape of the seafloor below.
Published Dec 29, 2015
One year after its launch, the Aquarius instrument is giving ocean sciences its first global view of sea surface salinity.
Published Jun 12, 2012
Submerged in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Spain and Portugal are giant, salty whirlpools of warm water. These deep-water whirlpools are part of the ocean’s circulatory system, and they help drive the ocean currents that moderate Earth’s climate. Warm water ordinarily sits at the ocean’s surface, but the warm water flowing out of the Mediterranean Sea is so salty (and therefore dense) that when it enters the Atlantic Ocean at the Strait of Gibraltar, it sinks to depths of more than 1,000 meters (one-half mile) along the continental shelf. This underwater river then separates into clockwise-flowing eddies that may continue to spin westward for more than two years, often coalescing with other eddies to form giant, salty whirlpools that may stretch for hundreds of miles. Because the eddies originate from the Mediterranean Sea, scientists call them “Meddies.”
Published Mar 23, 2006
Swirling waters from the Agulhas Current stir up a phytoplankton bloom.
Published Feb 11, 2012
Examining temperatures from the depths of the ocean, JPL scientists have found that lower layers of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans grew much warmer during a decade when surface temperatures cooled.
Published Jul 10, 2015
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