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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

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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

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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Portholes To My Thoughts

Back to Expedition

I grew up surrounded by water. The past two years I have been living in the desert and needless to say I have been craving water. The sound, the smell, the feel, and of course the visuals. The start of this journey with Schmidt Ocean Institute has been nothing short of perfection. I always think poetic thoughts when I look at the water. I noticed when I hear scientists speak about the ocean and its known data, I always feel like it is poetry. So I decided to bring my typewriter.

Artist-At-Sea Participant Lizzy Taber types on some of her work on the decks of <em>Falkor</em>.

I chose to put my thoughts onto paper that I cut into circles. I thought it was poetic to look through the circle windows as portals into the sea around me every morning and evening. I see the words typed back on to circles as portholes into my mind. The circular format is reflecting both inside and outside discoveries.

I find portholes to be romantic and extremely evocative. Portholes are historical, iconic, utilitarian, and simply beautiful.

Here are little glimpses of some of my first thoughts from day one on research vessel Falkor.

Thoughts from a Libra sun sign with a Pisces moon and Scorpio rising. Surrounded by water and air internally and externally.

Mapping the unknown, creating a language and marking history for future generations to build off of. We try.

The sun reflecting off of the infinite leveled Pacific ocean is a site I could never get tired of. 360 views of glittered fields.

What I see when I look out the window. It is all reflections and refractions.

This is what I cannot put into words. There is no one language that can capture this feeling. It’s a concept. It’s a love language. The oceans lure cause all to bask in its presence to want to return.