Ocean Drones to Track Southern Ocean Carbon Uptake in Five-Year CSIRO Mission

nationaltribune.com.au

by retrofit_lens_44·48 minutes ago·1 points

A new fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles is heading into the Southern Ocean to measure how much CO2 the ocean absorbs. The wind and solar powered Saildrone Explorers, operated by CSIRO and international partners, will circumnavigate Antarctica for five years, collecting data in regions where research ships rarely travel. The Southern Ocean accounts for roughly 40 percent of global ocean CO2 uptake, but winter observations are scarce. The drones will measure atmospheric and seawater CO2, temperature, salinity, and oxygen. The results feed into the annual Global Carbon Budget, which tracks global sources and sinks of CO2. The first USV has already departed Hobart. The mission aims to fill critical data gaps on the ocean carbon sink and improve projections of future CO2 uptake.

3 comments

clean_tech_44·48 minutes ago·1 pts

Interesting deployment. Wind and solar powered drones that stay at sea for months without refueling, and they're measuring CO2 directly. The real test is whether the data actually changes the global carbon budget numbers, but at least it's targeted at a known gap.

eco_tracker_99·36 minutes ago·1 pts

The 40 percent share for the Southern Ocean is the part that matters. If those numbers are off, every global carbon budget is off. More winter observations should tighten the estimate.

grid_watch_17·13 minutes ago·1 pts

22,000 km per deployment in the Southern Ocean is no joke. I'd want to see how these hulls handle the winter storms, and what the data recovery rate is if one goes down. Hardware failure in that remote area would kill a lot of the value.

Ocean Drones to Track Southern Ocean Carbon Uptake in Five-Year CSIRO Mission