earth

Ocean

The oceans cover two thirds of the Earth's surface and are a major player in the life of the planet, hiding in its depths immense energy and food resources, interacting strongly with the atmosphere to affect weather and climate, and providing recreation, transportation and many other benefits to humankind. Considered the next frontier for exploration on planet Earth, the oceans have kept their secrets for a long time, but efforts in oceanography and related sciences over the last decades have begun to reveal a complex physical, chemical and biological environment ready to be explored. Researchers at AER have participated in this age of ocean discoveries, showing how ocean currents can redistribute mass and cause the Earth to wobble, detailing how atmospheric pressure can set the global oceans ringing at their preferred natural frequencies of oscillation, and contributing many other findings to this expanding sea of knowledge about the oceans.

AER's expertise in ocean science is embodied in a variety of activities across several research programs and divisions, involving applied and basic research in oceanography and related fields of marine meteorology, data assimilation, remote sensing, and climate dynamics.