Saildrone has announced that three of its Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USVs) will be heading to the heart of the winter Gulf Stream to collect data.
Venturing into one of the most inhospitable environments on earth, the vehicles aim to rectify the fact that there are no sensors in situ. The USVs will gather information to answer key questions regarding carbon uptake in the ocean on their mission.
The data generated will answer some questions and give insight into the global carbon budget and provide insight into the effects of warming on the Northwest Atlantic Shelf.
Commenting on the mission, research co-lead Jaime Palter from the University of Rhode Island stated:
“There is a lot of uncertainty in ocean carbon uptake — nearly 4 billion tons of CO2 separates the average of the model-based estimates from observation-based estimates. That’s nearly as much CO2 as is emitted by the US [about 5 billion tons] each year. With more in situ observations we can do better.”
You can find out more about Saildrone here.
