SOLAS Science Plan

Since 2004, the Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) project is an international research initiative aiming to understand the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere. Achievement of this goal is important to understand and quantify the role that ocean-atmosphere interactions play in the regulation of climate and global change.

SOLAS celebrated its 10 year anniversary in 2014. In the first decade, the SOLAS community has accomplished a great deal towards the goals of the original Science Plan & Implementation Strategy and Mid-term Strategy (Law et al. 2013) as highlighted by the open access synthesis book on 'Ocean Atmosphere Interactions of Gases and Particles' edited by Liss and Johnson and the synthesis article in Anthropocene from Brévière et al. 2015. However there are still major challenges ahead that require coordinated research by ocean and atmospheric scientists. With this in mind, in 2013, SOLAS has started an effort to define research themes of importance for SOLAS research over the next decade. These themes form the basis of a new science plan for the next phase of SOLAS 2015-2025. SOLAS being a bottom-up organisation, a process in which community consultation play a central role was adopted. After two sets of reviews by our four sponsors (SCOR, Future Earth, WCRP and iCACGP), the SOLAS 2015-2025 Science Plan and Organisation (SPO) was officially approved.

Download, read and use the SOLAS 2015-2025 Science Plan and Organisation (.pdf 5Mb 76pp)

The SOLAS science mission is organised around five core themes:

• Core Theme 1: Greenhouse gases and the oceans
• Core Theme 2: Air-sea interface and fluxes of mass and energy
• Core Theme 3: Atmospheric deposition and ocean biogeochemistry
• Core Theme 4: Interconnections between aerosols, clouds, and marine ecosystems
• Core Theme 5: Ocean biogeochemical control on atmospheric chemistry.

In addition, the study of these themes will be integrated in efforts to understand key environments, e.g. upwelling systems, polar oceans, and coastal waters, as well as to evaluate the environmental efficacy and impacts of climate intervention proposals, policy decisions, and societal developments.

This science plan will likely be revisited in few years, therefore SOLAS is welcoming your comments on it, feel free to send them to SOLAS.

You are welcome to re-use figures 1, 2, 4, 8 and 10 designed especially for the science plan, in this case, please reference the SOLAS 2015-2025 Science Plan and Organisation (see inside cover for details). If you wish to re-use figure 6, please reference the scientific article Law et al. 2013.

Finally, with the release of this new science plan, we would like to take the opportunity to acknowledge the active and significant contribution of Roland von Glasow to Atmospheric Science, to SOLAS and to this science plan. Roland set the solid basis on which the next decade of SOLAS will built upon. Words cannot do justice to the loss that he is to both our scientific communities and those of us who also knew him as a friend. In his memory.

- last update June 2019 -