Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution researchers are taking part in the VOCALS-REx Field Campaign in the Southeastern Pacific. Carlos Moffat and Sean Whelan, with the help of University of Hawaii graduate student Rebecca Simpson, are shown here deploying a VMP-2000 on the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown.

VOCALS-REx is an international field program designed to make observations of critical components in the coupled climate system of the southeastern Pacific that are poorly understood and poorly represented in global climate models. The study that involves the VMP-2000 investigates the connection between upper ocean mixing and cloud formation. "We want to understand what role mixing plays in keeping surface water temperatures low, and how this facilitates cloud formation," says WHOI scientist  Fiammetta Straneo. For further details on the WHOI work with the VMP, click here.