SOLAS (Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study) is a new international research initiative that has as its goal: To achieve quantitative understanding of the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and the atmosphere, and how this coupled system affects and is affected by climate and environmental change.

Achievement of this goal is important in order to understand and quantify the role that ocean-atmosphere interactions play in the regulation of climate and global change.

The domain of SOLAS is focused on processes at the air-sea interface and includes a natural emphasis on the atmospheric and upper-ocean boundary layers, while recognising that some of the processes to be studied will, of necessity, be linked to significantly greater height and depth scales. SOLAS research will cover all ocean areas including coastal seas.

A fundamental characteristic of SOLAS is that the research is not only interdisciplinary (involving biogeochemistry, physics, mathematical modelling, etc.), but also involves closely coupled studies requiring marine and atmospheric scientists to work together. Such research will require a shift in attitude within the academic and funding communities, both of which are generally organised on a medium-by-medium basis in most countries.

SOLAS deals with the following issues or foci. Each focus is divided into several activities.

Focus 1: Biogeochemical Interactions and Feedbacks Between Ocean and Atmosphere

The objective of Focus 1 is to quantify feedback mechanisms involving biogeochemical coupling across the air-sea interface, which can only be achieved by studying the ocean and atmosphere in concert. These couplings include emissions of trace gases and particles and their reactions of importance in atmospheric chemistry and climate, and deposition of nutrients that control marine biological activity and carbon uptake.

Activity 1.1 Sea-salt Particle Formation and Transformations
Activity 1.2 Trace Gas Emissions and Photochemical Feedbacks
Activity 1.3 Dimethylsulphide and Climate
Activity 1.4 Iron and Marine Productivity
Activity 1.5 Ocean-Atmosphere Cycling of Nitrogen

Focus 2: Exchange Processes at the Air-Sea Interface and the Role of Transport and Transformation in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Boundary Layers

The objective in Focus 2 is to develop a quantitative understanding of processes responsible for air-sea exchange of mass, momentum and energy to permit accurate calculation of regional and global fluxes. This requires establishing the dependence of these interfacial transfer mechanisms on physical, biological and chemical factors within the boundary layers, and the horizontal and vertical transport and transformation processes that regulate these exchanges.

Activity 2.1 Exchange Across the Air-Sea Interface
Activity 2.2 Processes in the Oceanic Boundary Layer
Activity 2.3 Processes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer

FOCUS 3: Air-Sea Flux of CO^₂ and Other Long-Lived Radiatively Active Gases

The air-sea CO₂ flux is a key inter-reservoir exchange within the global carbon cycle. The oceans also play an important role in the global budgets of other long-lived radiatively-active gases, including N₂O and to some extent CH₄. The objective of Focus 3 is to characterise the air-sea flux of these gases and the boundary-layer mechanisms that drive them, in order to assess their sensitivity to variations in environmental forcing.

Activity 3.1 Geographic and Sub-Decadal Variability of Air-Sea CO₂ Fluxes
Activity 3.2 Surface Layer Carbon Transformations in the Oceans: Sensitivity to Global Change
Activity 3.3 Air-Sea Flux of N₂O and CH₄

The Plan includes a description of the organisation and management of SOLAS and an outline of how it will be implemented.

Download the full SOLAS Science Plan and Implementation Strategy here