In This Edition

The Oceans' Embrace

Part 1: Engineering for the Ocean

Part 2: Learning from our Ocean Planet

Part 3: Deep Ocean Adventures

Questions & Answers

Prof. Henrik Schmidt

James Newman '81, SM '86

Sarah Webster '00

Brett Lockyer '03

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Learning from our Ocean Planet

New tools are changing the exploration of the 72 percent of the planet that contains 90 percent of its living creatures--the oceans. The French-U.S. altimetric satellite TOPEX/POSEIDON sends measurements of global sea level to Earth every 10 days in hopes that this data, which allows observers to track El Nino/La Nina developments, for example, will contribute to improved global climate predictions. MIT's Altimetry, Ocean Currents and the Marine Geoid project has been helping make sense of the data. A team led by Professor of Physical Oceanography Carl Wunsch processes, edits, and analyzes the data set through innovative computer modeling technology. Wunsch's effort to develop observation and modeling techniques to enable oceanographers to determine the motion of the ocean in time and three space dimensions now involves combining acoustic tomography, which exploits the transparency of the ocean to sound, and satellite altimetry.

Understanding basic mechanisms that control the evolution of the global environment is the mission of the Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate (PAOC) established in 1997. Projects that explore the oceans' role in climate include the Ocean Modeling track of the Climate Modeling Initiative and the Ocean and Climate project. Oceans have such powerful influence because of their huge capacity to store and transport heat, water, and carbon dioxide and exchange them with the atmosphere. Part of the upward trend in hemispheric averaged temperature over the last 30 years may be explained by the North Atlantic Oscillation, another research focus.

Like Ocean Engineering, PAOC has close education and research ties with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). A graduate program in oceanography is based at the MIT-WHOI Joint Program, which offers one of the largest oceanographic faculties in the world.

The MIT-WHOI partnership is also key to research on sea life. Sallie W. Chisholm, professor of engineering and biology and a visiting scientist at WHOI's Biology Department, works to advance the understanding of the ecology of phytoplankton, especially their role the global carbon cycle and feeding dynamics. With WHOI colleagues, the Chisholm Lab discovered the smallest and most abundant phototroph in the sea, Prochlorococcus, and now explores its genetic diversity.

go on to Part 3: Deep Ocean Adventures

Sea Grant Guide Introduces Marine Mammals And Turtles Mammals & Turtles of the U.S. Atlantic & Gulf of Mexico won a recent National Outdoor Book Award for best nature guidebook.

Climate Modeling Initiative Combines CGCS and LCS Expertise The Center for Global Change Science and the Laboratory for Computer Science work jointly on a new climate model.

A Quick Guide to Marine Bioinvasions This handy on-line guide offers an introduction to marine bioinvasions including how and why they occur, and what the impacts can mean.

Ask Sea Grant Submit a question to Sea Grant experts from this interactive web page.