Turbulent ocean basin could aid in understanding global climate

The mid-latitude storms would sometimes come like beads on a string, one right after another, stalling the research team's efforts to deploy the critical ocean-monitoring instruments that sat secured on the deck of the 273-foot Roger Revelle. But despite the barrage of cyclonic storms, science prevailed. Using sophisticated equipment that ranged from underwater gliders and surface drifters to moorings and a state-of-the-art instrument called a Wire Flyer, University of Miami oceanographer Lisa Beal and a group of more than two dozen researchers amassed a trove of new ocean data in a region of the Southeastern Atlantic Ocean called the Cape Cauldron, bringing them a step closer to understanding the ocean's role in climate change. "The Cape Cauldron is one of the ocean's most energetic regions, full of spinning eddies and meandering filaments that vigorously stir and mix warm salty Indian Ocean waters into the cold Atlantic,” explained Beal, a professor of ocean sciences at the University's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, who led a recent 26-day research cruise to that basin. Scientists are not sure how the flow of waters from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic has been changing. But solving that mystery is vital, Beal noted, because the enormous flux of energy-heat, salt, and momentum-associated with all that stirring and mixing can have far-reaching consequences on global weather and climate. "How that energy flux is changing is the big question because it can affect Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC),” said Beal, referring to the conveyer belt-like system of ocean currents that circulate water within the Atlantic, bringing warm water north and cold water south.