Air-sea exchanges of energy, moisture, and gases affect the Earth’s weather and climate, influencing life, including our own. The ocean covers over 70% of the Earth and air-sea interactions fuel the hydrological cycle, affecting global weather and precipitation. Air-sea interactions affect the distribution of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and ocean; how seawater flows, winds blow and water mixes; how much food the surface ocean can produce; and how pollutants move through the ocean – information critical to policymakers, industry, and civil society. Yet, air-sea interactions are poorly sampled. There are no dedicated satellite missions for air-sea exchange and in situ observations are sparse. As an endorsed UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development programme, the Observing Air-Sea Interactions Strategy (OASIS) hopes to produce transformative observational-based knowledge to fundamentally improve weather, climate and ocean prediction, promote healthy oceans, the blue economy, and sustainable food and energy.

The 2022 ASLO Ocean Sciences Meeting will be held from February 27-March 4th in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA and virtually. This OASIS science session will be hybrid, and is part of the OS — Ocean Sustainability and the UN Decade set of sessions.