Atlantic Expedition

Scientists gather data on climate change

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Climate change is a topic on the minds of scientists around the world. Researchers are always trying to learn more about climate change, including information about weather patterns, rising sea levels, and droughts.

Since changes like these are hard to detect in a short amount of time, they need to gather information every year. This week, researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, are on an expedition to gather data from the Atlantic Ocean.

WHOI keeps a special buoy in the ocean. A buoy is a large marker that floats on water, usually anchored to the ocean floor. This buoy has special instruments that take information about the weather and ocean temperature. Each year, scientists travel to replace it with a new one.

"[The buoy] is used for understanding climate dynamics and climate," Karinna Sjo-Gaber, of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions (JOI), told Scholastic News Online. "The scientists' goal is not only to focus on local weather, but also climate variability.

Updates on the trip will be posted daily on the Web site (below). Sjo-Gaber describes her experiences on the expedition in the Web site's blog.

Science does not sleep, which means neither do we, Sjo-Gaber wrote on Tuesday. That morning, researchers began their day at 4:30 a.m.!

Kids can also send questions to researchers and learn more about ocean research on the site.

Understanding the Environment

The crew left for the two-week expedition on Saturday, led by Woods Hole researcher Al Plueddemann. They are working on a project called Northwest Tropical Atlantic Station (NTAS) to learn more about our environment and how it's changing. The project is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"It's an ongoing process," said Sjo-Gaber. "That's why we're going out every year, so we can begin to unravel what's going on in our environment."

JOI is an association made up of 31 leading oceanographic research institutions. JOI program assistants Karinna Sjo-Gaber and Jessica Sharoff were invited to be a part of Dr. Plueddemann's expedition.

RELATED WEB SITE

Mission 15 51

For more information about the ocean expedition (or to ask questions about the expedition), visit this Web site.

Critical Thinking Question

Read today's news story, and then answer the following question.

Why do you think it's important for scientists to do research on climate change?

Join a discussion of this question on our bulletin board.

Tiffany Chaparro is a contributing writer for Scholastic News Online.

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