Impacts of the oceans on our climate and weather ...

“In this new series of articles I hope to give an introduction to some forms of variability in our ocean systems and how they are impacting South Africa.” – Dr Juliet Hermes, Manager of the SAEON Egagasini Node (Picture © Die Burger) Ocean currents and sea surface temperature (Map © NOAA)

From the next issue onwards, SAEON eNews will be featuring a series of articles on this topical subject by Dr Juliet Hermes, Manager of SAEON’s Egagasini Node for Marine-Offshore Systems.

Juliet says: “Having given a number of talks on the oceanography around Southern Africa, I have been excited by people’s interest and enthusiasm for the subject. However, I have also been somewhat surprised by certain misconceptions and some strange ideas about what the oceans are doing.

“People I’ve spoken to have been amazed at my openness to admit that we, as scientists, still don’t understand a lot about what is going on in our oceans and there is often no right answer. This, to me, makes the field of oceanography an even more exciting subject to research as there are still so many unanswered questions and so many things that we are finally able to reveal with the amazing new technology that is so rapidly evolving.”

The “informal” series of articles will be aimed at helping people understand more about the huge importance of our oceans, the role they play in our everyday lives and some of the ways we measure and understand them better. At the same time, some of the unanswered questions will be highlighted. For example, how can we really expect to understand what impact anthropogenic climate change will have on our oceans when we don’t yet fully understand the natural modes of variability - from the seasonal cycle to interannual phenomena such as El Niño or the Southern Annular Mode?

Juliet explains: “It is through improved monitoring and ocean modelling that we will begin to understand these natural variations and how they are changing over time. As more and more emphasis is placed on the importance of our oceans, especially those surrounding Southern Africa, various national and international working groups and programmes are being set up. I will touch on some of these, in particular those relevant to South Africa and those with whom SAEON has links.”

The first article in the series will give an overview of current knowledge about the key oceanographic features around Southern Africa.