Floating Robots to Explore Indian Oceans

Scientists will release robots next week that can dive to 2,000m to gather previously unattainable information from the Indian Ocean

Scientists will embark on a voyage across the Indian Ocean next week, distributing floating robots to gather data about the largely unknown biology of the ocean.

For about 10 years 3,600 Argo free-floating sensors have been drifting around and gathering data about the temperature and salinity of the ocean.

From next week a team of scientists will distribute updated Bio Argos, which can dive to 2,000 metres and gather previously unattainable data.

Once they return to the surface data on biological indicators such as dissolved oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll, organic matter and particles in the ocean are transmitted back to the scientists.

The Australian and Indian science agencies teamed up on the project in early 2014.

“The ship is leaving Jakarta tomorrow night, so we’re loading the floats on in Christmas Island over the weekend,” said the CSIRO project leader, Dr Nick Hardman-Mountford. “It’s then going to go across the Indian Ocean for about three weeks.”

About a week into the journey towards Mauritius and Madagascar, the floats will be put in the water.

“We hope to get the first data within a few hours of the Argo float being launched. It will be put into the water and start sinking straight away and complete its first cycle in a few hours. When we’ve got a few weeks of data we’ll start to look at it in a more scientific way.

“For this trip we’re measuring chlorophyll, which tells us about the phytoplankton in the ocean. We do that by flashing a blue right at the phytoplankton and they flash back a red light at us. We can measure how much chlorophyll is there and measure how much algae life is there.”

Other flashing lights will be used to measure the size of the phytoplankton and how many particles there are. Analysing this will give vital information about the makeup of the ocean.

“All life in the ocean really comes from the amount of sunlight that’s turned into edible carbon by phytoplankton,” Hardman-Mountford said. “They are the meadows of the ocean.

“Understanding these basic processes tells us how much carbon is being taken up by organisms and that relates to how much carbon dioxide gets taken up by the ocean, but also how much energy there is to go into the food webs of the ocean to sustain those ecosystems.”

Source: The Guardian

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