The Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study or Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) is an international scientific research initiative that is one of the core projects of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme.
SOLAS has a goal to achieve quantitative understanding of the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere, and of how this coupled system affects and is affected by climate and environmental change. Thus, this international project is a critical component to understanding the Earth system and the effects of climate change on this system. The project includes meteorologists, oceanographers, marine biologists, and policy-makers.
SOLAS has three major focus areas: Biogeochemical interactions and feedbacks between ocean and atmosphere, Exchange processes at the air-sea interface and the role of transport and transformation in the atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers, and Air-sea flux of carbon dioxide and other long-lived radiatively active gases (this last focus is developed jointly with the Integrated Marine and Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research project; IMBER). These three focuses are detailed in the project's Science Plan and Implementation Strategy and in three separate Implementation Plans, and each focus has its own Implementation Working Group. The project is administered by a panel of scientific experts in the Scientific Steering Committee, and project coordination is handled by the SOLAS International Project Office at the University of East Anglia in Norwich UK. Scientific research is conducted by nations across the globe, and SOLAS has 23 established National Networks.
SOLAS runs a successful biennial International Summer School, held at the Institut d'Etudes Scientifiques de Cargèse in Corsica France, and the next Summer School is scheduled for 2007. Communications from SOLAS include a monthly e-bulletin, a biannual newsletter, and a website. An Open Science Meeting was held in Xiamen China in March 2007.