Ocean Circulation And Air Sea Interaction
The “Ocean Circulation and Air-Sea Interaction” group focuses on research related to ocean circulation and its linkages to the climate and the water cycle. The group provides broad support to NASA for ocean-related satellite missions as well as the development of future mission concepts.
The over-arching science questions the group addresses are:
- How is the ocean circulation changing on intraseasonal to multi-decadal time scales?
- What are the ocean’s roles on climate variability such as El Niño-Southern Oscillation and on climate change?
- How is the ocean circulation linked to the atmospheric, terrestrial, and cryospheric elements of the global water cycle?
Ocean Circulation and Air-Sea Interaction: Missions and Projects
Members of the group support various ocean-related satellite missions including the following:
- Aquarius – Dedicated to sea surface salinity measurements
- CYGNSS – Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System
- GPM – Global Precipitation Mission
- GRACE – Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
- ISS-RapidScat – Measuring ocean surface vector winds from the International Space Station
- OSTM/Jason-2 – Ocean Surface Topography Mission
- SMAP – Soil Moisture Active-Passive
- SWOT – Surface Water Ocean Topography
- NISAR - NASA–ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar
The scientific expertise & activities of the group members includes:
- Ocean circulation dynamics.
- Air-sea interaction and the roles of the ocean in climate.
- Linkage of the ocean with the global water cycle.
- Global ocean modeling and state estimation (e.g., ECCO).
- Regional ocean data assimilation and forecast.
- Tsunami modeling and prediction.
- Satellite retrieval, calibration/validation of ocean surface wind, salinity, temperature, and sea ice.
- Sea ice observations.
- Public engagement to promote NASA and JPL.
- Provide scientific advice to NASA’s Physical Oceanography Distributive Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC)
- Mentoring NASA DEVELOP Application Program students