The observation station off Cape Hatteras, NC, collected data about #coastal #currents that influence the #weather & commercial #fisheries along the US East Coast.

Mike Muglia, professor of coastal studies at East Carolina University, used the data to understand waves, currents & sea life for a marine #RenewableEnergy test site in Nags Head, NC, that was funded by the #Energy Department.

#ClimateChange #Ocean #MarineLife #MarineEcosystems #NSF #ClimateCrisis #reasearch #science #Trump

The #ocean observation system began operating in 2016 & was expected to continue for 25 years. Jim Edson, a marine meteorologist who led the Ocean Observatories Initiative, called it “the world’s most advanced continuously operating ocean observing systems.” When it was first proposed, the #science foundation said it was important to have a long-term presence at scientifically important sites in the #Atlantic & #Pacific oceans.

#ClimateChange #MarineEcosystems #ClimateCrisis #reasearch #Trump

…Craig McLean, who was the acting chief scientist at #NOAA during the first #Trump term, said the move was part of a pattern in the Trump admin.

“This reflects the further lack of understanding that the current administration has of scientific value & scientific merit,” Dr. McLean said. “By dismantling such a system, we push the United States back yet again into a rear seat in global scientific leadership.”

#ClimateChange #Ocean #MarineLife #MarineEcosystems #ClimateCrisis #reasearch #science

The station in the Irminger Sea has been key to understanding changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current [#AMOC], a global conveyor belt of water that some scientists are concerned may be weakening as a result of #GlobalWarming. A collapse of the current could have severe #weather effects.

#ClimateChange #Ocean #MarineLife #MarineEcosystems #NSF #ClimateCrisis #reasearch #science #Trump

Scientists have used data from the system to understand how the #ocean is absorbing #GreenhouseGases from the atmosphere, how changes in #OceanTemperature such as marine heat waves might affect #fisheries or signal bigger shifts in the #climate, & coastal #flooding along the East Coast.

#ClimateChange #MarineLife #MarineEcosystems #NSF #ClimateCrisis #Trump

The #Trump admin is dismantling a $368 million deep #ocean observation system put in place a decade ago to monitor #coastal #environments, #MarineEcosystems & powerful currents that affect the global #climate.

The National Science Foundation [#NSF] said it would send ships in June to begin removing more than 900 deep-sea instruments anchored off Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, North Carolina, & an area between Greenland & Iceland known as the Irminger Sea.

#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis