Introduction

Abstract

In October 2023, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), a world leader in oceanographic research and the development of innovative instrumentation and measurement strategies for monitoring and observing ocean conditions at global scales. Through the collective efforts of PMEL and its national and international research partners, our researchers have fundamentally advanced the scientific understanding of climate variability and change, extreme and weather events, the effects of climate change on marine ecosystems, ocean carbon and sulfur cycles, ocean acidification, Arctic oceanography, tsunamis, and ocean-seafloor interactive processes. During this same period, PMEL scientists and technicians have been advancing the science and technology innovation necessary to expand our observational capabilities in order to provide coverage over large sections of the ocean. These advances have profoundly shaped our understanding of Earth system processes and have led to improvements in environmental prediction, climate assessments, and weather and climate services.