The first of a new fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) has set off from Tasmania, Australia, on a nine-month mission to monitor the Southern Ocean.
CSIRO’s Dr Elizabeth Shadwick discusses with host David Boldeman how the project will help us to better understand how much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean surface.
The USVs have no crew and will be transported on its journey by the high winds of the Southern Ocean. It could face waves up to 9 metres high but it is designed for the conditions.
The project is part of an international collaboration between CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency and partner of the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), South Africa’s Southern Ocean Carbon-Climate Observatory (SOCCO), CSIR, Columbia University, University of Washington, and Schmidt Sciences, through the Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle (VICC) program, and Saildrone, to capture data on ocean carbon sinks.
For more info on the project: https://coco2-vicc.github.io/about
Elizabeth also appeared on our Ultramarine podcast: 4500m deep - remote observatory expands climate knowledge
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