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Founded in 1876, Texas A&M University is a U.S. public and comprehensive university offering a wide variety of academic programs far beyond its original label of agricultural and mechanical trainings. It is one of the few institutions holding triple federal designations as a land-, sea- and ...
One of three plains that comprise the Pacific-Antarctic Basin (the others being the Amundsen and the Mornington Abyssal Plains. It is located at around 100-120° W.
Industry:Earth science
One of the seas found on the Siberian shelf in the Arctic Mediterranean Sea. It is located between the White Sea to the west and the Kara Sea to the east and adjoins the Arctic Ocean proper to the north.
The Barents Sea is a key region for the modification of water masses in the Arctic, being one of several marginal seas in the Arctic wherein water flowing over shallow regions is transformed when heat loss and brine injection during the formation of sea ice increase density in the winter and sea ice meltwater and river runoff decrease surface water density in the summer. It differs from the other marginal seas in the region in that it has close connections with both the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic Ocean.
Industry:Earth science
One of the seas that comprise the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea which is sometimes called the Catalan Sea. It lies between the Iberian coast and the Balearic Islands (Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca) in the northwestern Mediterranean. It is separated from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the east by Sardinia and Corsica and abuts the Alboran Sea to the west. The bathymetry is dominated by the Balearic Abyssal Plain, which covers over 30,000 square miles, covering the majority of the basin floor at depths ranging from 2700-2800 m. This is bordered to the northwest by the Rhone Fan, a large sedimentary cone.
The circulation can be seen to first order to be a single oblong cyclonic cell with a divergence zone aligned with the shape of the basin. More detailed studies have shown the surface circulation to be strong year-round and characterizied by two permanent density fronts. These are the Catalan Front on the continental shelf slope and the Balearic Front on the Balearic Islands shelf slope, with the former the more active. The northern area a plume of cold water frequently seen moving southward along the continental slope and shedding dipole eddies along its leading edge. Energetic filaments continuously spawned by the Catalan Front seem to be associated with this plume.
Industry:Earth science
A NOAA COP program whose overall goal is to reduce uncertainty in resource management decisions through ecological research on recruitment and stock structure of walleye pollock, presently the largest single-species fishery in the world. A combination of basin circulation studies, analysis of recent and historical data, and development of genetic testing methods has advanced the definition of the stock structure of Bering Sea pollock in this program.
Industry:Earth science
The transformation, via photosynthesis in the ocean surface layer by plant cells (primarily phytoplankton), of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) into biogenic carbon, including, for example, the CaCO<sup>3</sup> in shells of coccolithophorids. The photosynthetic organisms incorporating the inorganic carbon return much of it to CO<sup>2</sup> in the surface layer via respiration, but a significant fraction settles below the main thermocline. This is an oceanic sink for atmospheric CO<sup>2</sup> where a rain of small debris consisting of phytoplankton shells and zooplankton fecal pellets and molts sink out of the ocean surface waters. These sinking particles remove POC from surface mixed layers into stratified, relatively deep layers where, on a millenial time scale, it is no longer susceptible to exchange with the atmosphere. Particulate matter removed in this manner is called export flux.
It is estimated that 75% of the difference in DIC concentration between the surface and deep oceans is due to the biological pump. If this pump were eliminated, the carbon released from the deep ocean as it equilibrated with the atmosphere would more than double the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. On a global scale, the downward transport of CO<sup>2</sup> by the physical (i.e. vertical transport of CO<sup>2</sup>-laden water) and biological pumps amounts to around 102 Gt C yr<sup>-1</sup>. The upward physical transport is about 100 Gt C yr<sup>-1</sup>, leaving a net uptake of about 2 Gt C yr<sup>-1</sup>.
Industry:Earth science
An ICESS project to explore the relationship between light and upper ocean geochemistry at the BATS site off the island of Bermuda. The goal is to evaluate the role that light plays in the cycling of carbon, nitrogen, silica, phosphorous and sulfur in the upper ocean and to assess the ability to study these processes using the SeaWiFS satellite sensors.
Industry:Earth science
A water mass formed in the Black Sea that flows into the Aegean Sea through the Strait of Bosporus, the Marmara Sea and the Strait of Dardanelles. The flux into the Aegean varies from 180-200 km<sup>3</sup> yr<sup>-1</sup> to a maximum of 700 km<sup>3</sup> yr<sup>-1</sup> between April and October. BSW is of primary importance to processes in the Aegean, but plays a secondary role in the overall water balance of the Mediterranean.
BSW is recognized by a surface salinity minimum, with the salinity off the mouth of the Strait of Dardanelles varying from 24 to 26 psu during the warm months and from 30-35 psu during the cold months. A pronounced halocline develops in the North Aegean, with the maximum depth ranging from 20-80 m. As it travels westward and southward, BSW is modified following the general cyclonic circulation of the Aegean. During the winter, it spreads westwards and then northwards, entering the Samothraki Plateau. It flows westwards over the plateau and then southwards along the eastern coast of the mainland to Evvia Island. If the thermohaline front in the Andros Strait is well developed, the BSW flows eastwards along the northern boundaries of the Kyklades Plateau, following the general cyclonic circulation. If the thermohaline front disappears, the BSW bifurcates, with one branch moving eastwards along the northern boundary of the Kyklades Plateau and the other southwards into the Saronikos Gulf, causing the winter salinity minima seen there. During the summer, the general cyclonic circulation pattern still prevails, with the Etesian winds causing the BSW to flow southwestwards to Evvia Island and then southwards. The low salinity waters flow through Andros Strait and create the second salinity minimum observed in the South Evvoikos and Saronikos Gulfs. It has been detected (by the surface salinity minimum) as far south as the Kithira Straits.
Industry:Earth science
A joint experiment between NOAA and the Government of Barbados conducted over the tropical Atlantic east of Barbados in the summer of 1969.
Industry:Earth science
A regional sea which is part of the Australasian Mediterranean Sea in the southwest Pacific Ocean. It is classified as a distinct sea for navigational purposes but is usually grouped with the Flores Sea for oceanographic purposes. It is centered at around 116° E and 8. 5° S and is bordered by Bali and Sumbawa to the south and Madura to the west, and abuts the Java Sea to the north and the Flores Sea to the east. The Bali Sea covers an area of about 45,000 km<sup>2</sup> and has a greatest depth of 1590 m. It is mostly underlain by a small trough extending to the west of the Flores Trough and is bound by sills to the south (the 200 m Bali Strait and the 220 m Lombok Strait) and by a narrow, 600 m deep passage connecting it to the Makassar Stait to the north.
The circulation and water mass properties are continuous with the contiguous Flores and Java Seas to the east and north, repectively. Most of the oceanographic interest in the Bali Sea is concerned with its role in the Indonesian throughflow of Pacific Ocean waters into the Indian Ocean, with most if not all of this flow passing through the aforementioned Bali and Lombok Straits.
Industry:Earth science
The amount by which the average of a set of values departs from a reference value. In statistics and signal processing, it is usually felicitous to remove this before proceeding to further and more complicated data manipulations.
Industry:Earth science
