Scripps Research Model for Oceanic Climate Interactions
The Scripps Ocean Atmosphere Research Simulator (SOARS) is an innovative research facility that allows scientists to explore the intricate connections between the ocean, atmosphere, and human activities, and their potential impacts on global climate.
Located at UC San Diego, SOARS is open for collaboration with both internal and external researchers. Detailed information on conducting research with SOARS can be found on the university's website.
SOARS offers a range of research modes tailored for dynamic studies on air-sea gas exchange, marine ecology, wind/wave interactions, and polar/tropical environmental processes. While specific details about each mode may not be readily available, they are likely to include controlled experimental setups such as timeslice experiments, atmosphere-only simulations with prescribed sea surface temperature (SST) forcing, and coupled atmosphere-ocean model configurations.
- Timeslice Experiments
These simulations fix the SST and sea ice conditions at particular points, enabling researchers to isolate and study specific climate states or events. This is particularly useful for examining air-sea gas interchange under controlled conditions.
- Atmosphere-Only Models
By forcing these models with observed or simulated SST and sea ice data, scientists can investigate atmospheric responses, the impact of changing wind patterns, and shifts in tropical and polar regions relevant for wind/wave and climate studies.
- Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean Simulations
These simulations dynamically capture feedbacks between the ocean surface and atmosphere, which is crucial for representing marine ecological processes and complex gas exchange mechanisms driven by varying environmental factors.
SOARS research modes provide flexible platforms to dissect dynamic processes driving air-sea interactions and marine environmental changes across diverse settings, from polar to tropical oceans. For air-sea gas interchange, these modes enable controlled variation of SST, wind, and biogeochemical boundary conditions to quantify gas fluxes like CO2. In marine ecology, coupled dynamic simulations can track the impact of physical forcing on plankton blooms and ecosystem dynamics.
Wind/wave studies benefit from high-resolution atmosphere and wave state simulations, while polar and tropical environment studies exploit the ability to simulate changing sea ice, SST, and atmospheric chemistry under future climate scenarios.
SOARS is equipped with several research modes, including Aerosol, Ecological, Wind/Wave, and Polar/Tropical. The Aerosol mode creates a pristine system free of pollutants and organic materials for precise air-sea gas interchange and surface studies. The Ecological mode introduces pollutants and induces phytoplankton blooms to study the effects of climate change and varying environmental conditions on marine ecological communities. The Wind/Wave mode generates waves with heights up to 1.2 meters and simulates gale force winds up to 96 kilometers per hour (17 meters per second).
SOARS is a unique research installation that enables scientists to control and simulate varying ocean environments. Videos about SOARS, such as "The Ocean Simulator Making Waves in Climate Science" and "SOARS: An Insider's Look at Scripps Ocean Atmosphere Research Simulator The Lab at Scripps Oceanography That is Making Waves," offer insightful glimpses into the work being done at this cutting-edge facility.
It's important to note that while this article provides an overview of SOARS and its research modes, specific research modes of SOARS can be combined for dynamic research studies. For precise mode descriptions and operational details of SOARS, direct technical documentation from Scripps would be required, as the current search results do not explicitly detail SOARS capabilities.
In essence, SOARS is a valuable tool for scientists seeking to better understand the complex interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, and human activities, and their potential impacts on global climate.
- In the process of exploring climate-change impacts on global climate, researchers can utilize SOARS's Atmosphere-Only Models, which incorporate observed or simulated Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and sea ice data to investigate atmospheric responses and shifts in tropical and polar regions, relevance for wind/wave and climate studies.
- With the purpose of deeply comprehending environmental science aspects related to marine ecology, scientists can turn to SOARS's Ecological mode, which introduces pollutants and phytoplankton blooms to study the effects of climate change and varying environmental conditions on marine ecological communities.
