Research

Earliest Life may have Arisen in Ponds, not Oceans

Study finds shallow bodies of water were probably more suitable for Earth’s first life forms.

Machine Learning Identifies Links Between World’s Oceans

Postdoc Maike Sonnewald adapted a method that identifies areas of the global ocean with similar physics, revealing global dynamical regimes.

Climate Change Makes Summer Weather Stormier Yet More Stagnant

Study finds rising temperatures feed more energy to thunderstorms, less to general circulation.

Study: Much of the Surface Ocean Will Shift in Color by End of 21st Century

Climate-driven changes in phytoplankton communities will intensify the blue and green regions of the world’s oceans.

New Climate Model to be Built from the Ground Up

Professors Raffaele Ferrari and John Marshall, along with colleagues from Caltech, NASA's JPL, and the Naval Postgraduate School, envision a revolution in climate modeling using data assimilation and machine learning.

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The Program in Atmospheres, Oceans, and Climate oversees a broad program of research and education directed at understanding the Earth in all its aspects - physical, chemical and biological - and how Earth has evolved over time to its present state and its likely future trajectory.

We make use of observations, theory and models and also place our studies in the context of planetary systems. Many of the most important discoveries in our science, such as chaos, the chemistry of the ozone hole and the physics of hurricanes were made by PAOC scientists. Follow the links on the left to explore our research in the areas of atmospheres, oceans, and climate.