VOCALS is a field campaign to better understand the interactions of the ocean, clouds, air, and land in the Southeastern Pacific.
Click on image for full size
Image Courtesy of Robert Wood

Introduction to VOCALS Science

Scientists know that west coasts of Chile and Peru and the Southeastern Pacific Ocean are a very important part of the global climate system. However, they don't completely understand how the oceans, atmosphere, and land in this area work together to affect climate.

To learn more about how the ocean, atmosphere, and land in this area work together, a team of scientists is going to begin a big project called VOCALS. The VOCALS science team will start a series of scientific experiments using the Southeastern Pacific Ocean and the west coasts of Peru and Chile in South America as their 'laboratory'. To do scientific research in such a big place, special airplanes, research ships, buoys, and meteorological towers are being used to make observations and collect data.

If scientists can learn more about the Southeastern Pacific climate system, they can use this information to improve global climate models and predictions about global warming. The Southeastern Pacific region is known for its stratocumulous clouds, fog and drizzle, strong winds, ocean currents, nutrient rich marine habitats, cool surface ocean temperatures, dry deserts, and the Andes Mountain range.

Scientists in the VOCALS team want to explore the interactions between aerosols, clouds, and drizzle in the part of the atmosphere near the sea surface called the marine boundary layer (MBL). They play an important role in Earth's radiation budget by reflecting sunlight out to space. The scientists also want to learn about chemical and physical processes that occur between the upper ocean, the land, and the atmosphere. Research ships will be taking samples to learn more about the medium sized ocean eddies.

Learning more about how human activity impacts the Southeastern Pacific climate system will be an important part of VOCALS. The scientists will explore how aerosols from copper smelters affect cloud formation. They will also look at how changes in the climate impact the fishing industry in Chile and Peru.

It turns out that October is the best month of the year for the VOCALS experiment, because that is when there are the most stratocumulus clouds over the Southeastern Pacific region and when the winds are the strongest. It is also the time of year when the ocean and atmosphere are most closely linked.

For updates from the scientists during the VOCALS campaign, check out the Postcards from the Field. VOCALS Scientists will be posting updates during the month of October 2008.

Last modified October 13, 2008 by Julia Genyuk.

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

What Controls the Climate?

Some of the factors that have an affect on climate, like volcanic eruptions and changes in the amount of solar energy, are natural. Others, like the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, are...more

What is VOCALS?

What if you wanted to learn more about the climate of a very large area of the world? What would be involved in studying how the oceans, land, and atmosphere interact? You would need to have a team of...more

Southeast Pacific Climate

The Southeast Pacific Ocean region off the coastal areas of Peru and Chile is one part of the world where stratus and stratocumulus clouds are frequently present. Other areas include the subtropical climate...more

Modeling the Future of Climate Change

To figure out the future of climate change, scientists need tools to measure how Earth responds to change. Some of these tools are global climate models. Using models, scientists can better understand...more

Stratocumulus

Stratocumulus clouds belong to the Low Cloud (surface-2000m) group. These clouds are low, lumpy, and gray. These clouds can look like cells under a microscope - sometimes they line up in rows and other...more

Fog

Fog is a ground-level cloud. There are several ways that fog forms. It usually forms when moist air travels over cold land or water. The moist air cools down and the water vapor condenses and forms a cloud...more

Drizzle

Drizzle is light precipitation that is made up of liquid water drops that are smaller than rain drops. Drizzle can be so light that only a millimeter of water falls to the Earth's surface in one day. It...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA