Wednesday October 15, 2025
CBS News 8 —
SAN DIEGO — Just steps from the waves at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, SOARS, short for Scripps Ocean Atmosphere Research Simulator, sits inside a decades-old redwood structure where groundbreaking science is unfolding.
Inside, Grant Deane, a research oceanographer at Scripps, is running experiments using SOARS with his time. Deane has studied sea foam and its role in reflecting sunlight and creating sea spray aerosols, tiny droplets that rise into the atmosphere and influence the formation of clouds. “Those tiny particles go up into the atmosphere and change the way clouds are formed,” he explained.
At 36,000 gallons, the SOARS tank offers a close-up view of processes satellites can’t capture. It’s also helping researchers study the long-term effects of rising carbon dioxide levels. “That carbon dioxide acidifies the ocean,” Deane said. “It makes it slightly more acidic. What is that carbon dioxide going to do to the biology, to the ocean and to the weather?”
With 120 feet of space and a $4 million price tag, SOARS is the only instrument capable of simulating ocean conditions from the polar regions to the tropics. “We can make storms, we can make sea ice, we can grow organisms in the ocean,” Deane said.
SOARS has four climate modes, including polar, windwave, aerosol, and biological, which help scientists better understand the ocean–atmosphere boundary — the thin region where the ocean meets the air. Under hurricane-force conditions, the simulator shows how wind and waves interact in real time.
Scientists from around the world schedule time at the facility to study a wide range of topics, from sea ice to autonomous gliders. “People come in from Poland,” Deane said. “They want to make sea ice. They come in for a week or two.”
Coastal engineers have even utilized SOARS to model hurricanes, aiding in the design of concepts for larger simulators that can test the resilience of entire buildings. “It turns out there are simple things you can do to buildings to make them resistant to the forces of the winds and waves,” Deane explained.
He says understanding these ocean-atmosphere interactions has far-reaching implications for the planet and for future generations. “We’re unraveling the secrets of this boundary, how biology impacts human health and the coastline, what happens in storms, and how we can better predict them,” Deane said. “We need to know what’s happening today that’s going to influence life 20 years from now, because it’s all connected.”
Deane added that the research coming out of this advanced simulator could change the way we think about our planet and our future.