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We are boldly exploring our unknown Ocean to excite interest and inform the wise stewardship of our planet.

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Seeking Salt Fingers in the Tropical Atlantic
In the northwestern equatorial Atlantic, the water column is highly stratified, with warm, salty water sitting atop cooler, fresher, nutrient-rich waters carried northward from the Antarctic by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). These conditions make the region a hotspot for salt finger mixing, a fine-scale process in which heat and salt are exchanged across density gradients, leading to waters sinking and rising in a beautiful, swirling motion. Scientists suspect that these salt fingers transport essential nutrients for plankton growth, such as nitrate, to the surface, thereby fueling ecosystem productivity and potentially influencing carbon export to deeper waters. Drs. Joseph Gradone, Corday Selden of Rutgers University, U.S., and an international team will venture to the Tropical Atlantic to collect essential data on salt fingers and their role in nutrient transport from the deep sea to surface waters. Scientific evidence suggests that salt fingers in this region are intensifying as waters warm and their salinity changes, driven by the ocean absorbing excess heat from the atmosphere. Gradone and Selden hypothesize that this trend is amplifying salt-finger mixing and potentially offsetting predicted ocean productivity loss in the region by carrying more nutrients to the surface and altering ecosystem structure. Using R/V Falkor (too)’s CTD and rosette, two coordinated gliders, and an untethered, autonomous oceanographic vehicle called the Vertical Microstructure Profiler 5500, they will improve our understanding of the physical dynamics of salt fingers and their impact on primary productivity in this region of the global Ocean.
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In the coming years, our expeditions will explore understudied regions around all seven continents in our global Ocean.

Latest Expedition

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Seeking Salt Fingers in the Tropical Atlantic
In the northwestern equatorial Atlantic, the water column is highly stratified, with warm, salty water sitting atop cooler, fresher, nutrient-rich waters carried northward from the Antarctic by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). These conditions make the region a hotspot for salt finger mixing, a fine-scale process in which heat and salt are exchanged across density gradients, leading to waters sinking and rising in a beautiful, swirling motion. Scientists suspect that these salt fingers transport essential nutrients for plankton growth, such as nitrate, to the surface, thereby fueling ecosystem productivity and potentially influencing carbon export to deeper waters. Drs. Joseph Gradone, Corday Selden of Rutgers University, U.S., and an international team will venture to the Tropical Atlantic to collect essential data on salt fingers and their role in nutrient transport from the deep sea to surface waters. Scientific evidence suggests that salt fingers in this region are intensifying as waters warm and their salinity changes, driven by the ocean absorbing excess heat from the atmosphere. Gradone and Selden hypothesize that this trend is amplifying salt-finger mixing and potentially offsetting predicted ocean productivity loss in the region by carrying more nutrients to the surface and altering ecosystem structure. Using R/V Falkor (too)’s CTD and rosette, two coordinated gliders, and an untethered, autonomous oceanographic vehicle called the Vertical Microstructure Profiler 5500, they will improve our understanding of the physical dynamics of salt fingers and their impact on primary productivity in this region of the global Ocean.
Read More

From grants for caregivers to an artist-at-sea residency, our programs strive to deepen knowledge and inspire a connection with our planet’s life support system.

Latest Expedition

See all

Seeking Salt Fingers in the Tropical Atlantic
In the northwestern equatorial Atlantic, the water column is highly stratified, with warm, salty water sitting atop cooler, fresher, nutrient-rich waters carried northward from the Antarctic by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). These conditions make the region a hotspot for salt finger mixing, a fine-scale process in which heat and salt are exchanged across density gradients, leading to waters sinking and rising in a beautiful, swirling motion. Scientists suspect that these salt fingers transport essential nutrients for plankton growth, such as nitrate, to the surface, thereby fueling ecosystem productivity and potentially influencing carbon export to deeper waters. Drs. Joseph Gradone, Corday Selden of Rutgers University, U.S., and an international team will venture to the Tropical Atlantic to collect essential data on salt fingers and their role in nutrient transport from the deep sea to surface waters. Scientific evidence suggests that salt fingers in this region are intensifying as waters warm and their salinity changes, driven by the ocean absorbing excess heat from the atmosphere. Gradone and Selden hypothesize that this trend is amplifying salt-finger mixing and potentially offsetting predicted ocean productivity loss in the region by carrying more nutrients to the surface and altering ecosystem structure. Using R/V Falkor (too)’s CTD and rosette, two coordinated gliders, and an untethered, autonomous oceanographic vehicle called the Vertical Microstructure Profiler 5500, they will improve our understanding of the physical dynamics of salt fingers and their impact on primary productivity in this region of the global Ocean.
Read More

Experience the wonder of our global Ocean via immersive galleries of art, scientific discoveries, and film.

Latest Expedition

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Seeking Salt Fingers in the Tropical Atlantic
In the northwestern equatorial Atlantic, the water column is highly stratified, with warm, salty water sitting atop cooler, fresher, nutrient-rich waters carried northward from the Antarctic by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). These conditions make the region a hotspot for salt finger mixing, a fine-scale process in which heat and salt are exchanged across density gradients, leading to waters sinking and rising in a beautiful, swirling motion. Scientists suspect that these salt fingers transport essential nutrients for plankton growth, such as nitrate, to the surface, thereby fueling ecosystem productivity and potentially influencing carbon export to deeper waters. Drs. Joseph Gradone, Corday Selden of Rutgers University, U.S., and an international team will venture to the Tropical Atlantic to collect essential data on salt fingers and their role in nutrient transport from the deep sea to surface waters. Scientific evidence suggests that salt fingers in this region are intensifying as waters warm and their salinity changes, driven by the ocean absorbing excess heat from the atmosphere. Gradone and Selden hypothesize that this trend is amplifying salt-finger mixing and potentially offsetting predicted ocean productivity loss in the region by carrying more nutrients to the surface and altering ecosystem structure. Using R/V Falkor (too)’s CTD and rosette, two coordinated gliders, and an untethered, autonomous oceanographic vehicle called the Vertical Microstructure Profiler 5500, they will improve our understanding of the physical dynamics of salt fingers and their impact on primary productivity in this region of the global Ocean.
Read More

Science Team Resources

To help you plan for your expedition, this hub includes information about outreach, technical specifications for our robotic platforms, a list of lab equipment, information about accessing data repositories, and more.

Latest Expedition

See all

Seeking Salt Fingers in the Tropical Atlantic
In the northwestern equatorial Atlantic, the water column is highly stratified, with warm, salty water sitting atop cooler, fresher, nutrient-rich waters carried northward from the Antarctic by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). These conditions make the region a hotspot for salt finger mixing, a fine-scale process in which heat and salt are exchanged across density gradients, leading to waters sinking and rising in a beautiful, swirling motion. Scientists suspect that these salt fingers transport essential nutrients for plankton growth, such as nitrate, to the surface, thereby fueling ecosystem productivity and potentially influencing carbon export to deeper waters. Drs. Joseph Gradone, Corday Selden of Rutgers University, U.S., and an international team will venture to the Tropical Atlantic to collect essential data on salt fingers and their role in nutrient transport from the deep sea to surface waters. Scientific evidence suggests that salt fingers in this region are intensifying as waters warm and their salinity changes, driven by the ocean absorbing excess heat from the atmosphere. Gradone and Selden hypothesize that this trend is amplifying salt-finger mixing and potentially offsetting predicted ocean productivity loss in the region by carrying more nutrients to the surface and altering ecosystem structure. Using R/V Falkor (too)’s CTD and rosette, two coordinated gliders, and an untethered, autonomous oceanographic vehicle called the Vertical Microstructure Profiler 5500, they will improve our understanding of the physical dynamics of salt fingers and their impact on primary productivity in this region of the global Ocean.
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Depicting Motion

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Ink pitch and roll drawings from November 24, 2019.

One of the first things you notice being on a ship - rather than land - is the motion. Your foundation is always moving, making simple tasks (like taking a shower or walking down a hallway) into dynamic actions, as compared the almost thoughtless, natural acts completed while being on solid ground.

Artist’s tools to capture the roll and pitch of the <em>Falkor</em> in ink on paper.

Seeking to understand the degree of motion felt on the Falkor on the open ocean, I began a drawing experiment using simple instruments (thread, wire, ink, and a brush) to capture the pitch and roll of the ship as a series of drawings. The brush is suspended in air like a pendulum, swaying back and forth (pitch) and side to side (roll), seeking center through a force of gravity. Each drawing captures a moment of the effect of the ocean’s waves on the Falkor.

The pitch and roll of the ship are also being scientifically tracked through the Falkor’s extensive system of automated data collection. Using this database, which takes a measurement every second, the same motion represented over time can be represented as a graph.

A graph illustrating thirty minutes of Pitch and Roll measurements during the cruise on the <em>Falkor</em> from November 30th, 2019.

Motion Sonified
What other methods can we use to depict motion? Translating data into sound - known as “Data Sonification” - can help us understand data by listening. TwoTone

A 3D printed sculptural iteration of ocean wave data provided by Nathan Laxague (Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University).

What's Next?
I have only scratched the surface! The scientific team is beginning to analyze data from the UAV mounted infrared camera, and we now have imagery of the Trichodesmium slicks from the air! I am keen to start working with heat map imagery to visualize how these sea slicks are impacting ocean surface heating. Exciting!