OS Research

Monitoring the Ocean’s Green Pulse: A New Global Dataset for Phytoplankton Phenology

Sandy Thomalla June 10, 2025

Summer phytoplankton bloom in the Baltic Sea (Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens and Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and MODIS data from LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response).

Phytoplankton are tiny, single-celled organisms mainly found in the ocean’s sunlit surface, where they grow through photosynthesis, forming the marine food web’s base and regulating Earth’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide. Their seasonal growth cycles—known as “blooms”—drive marine productivity and influence everything from carbon uptake to food security. But how can we track ...[Read More]

Sailing for Science: How Data from Sailing Races Advances Ocean Research

Jacqueline Behncke November 12, 2024

The tracks of the 33 competitors from the last Vendée Globe sailing race edition in 2020-21. (Credit: Erwan Rivault)

The Vendée Globe began on November 10th, with 44 participants embarking on the world’s toughest sailing race. This non-stop, single-handed round-the-world yacht race challenges skippers to circumnavigate the Southern Ocean. The race starts in France, traverses the North Atlantic, and heads directly into the Southern Ocean. Despite taking place during the austral summer, the conditions remain ...[Read More]

The Alarming Decline in Ocean CO2 Observations

Jacqueline Behncke October 14, 2024

(Image credit: ChatGPT)

„observations not taken today are lost forever.“ (Wunsch et al., 2013) The Critical Need for CO2 Measurements Imagine the ocean as a giant lung, breathing in carbon dioxide (CO2) and helping to keep our planet cool. It absorbs about 25% of the CO2 emissions from human activities, playing a crucial role in mitigating the pace of climate change. But what happens when we lose sight of this process? B ...[Read More]

Life as a “dry” oceanographer – studying Earth’s oceans from your laptop

Yackar Mauzole December 1, 2020

Credit: NASA/GSFC Scientific Visualization Studio/Greg Shirah/Horace Mitchell/GSFC

I didn’t always know that I would become an oceanographer when I grew up, but I knew I would be doing ‘Science’. I was born and raised in Paris, France. While growing up, I was always interested in Science, from watching documentaries about the universe or nature, to attending science events at museums. While Science is very wide and encompasses many fields of research, I wasn’t too cl ...[Read More]