Scientists will study the Gulf Stream with oceanographic drones
(Saildrone)
The Saildrone company has sent three explorer autonomous research vessels to explore the Gulf Stream.
They will collect data on the ocean's absorption of carbon dioxide for six months to assess how the warm Atlantic current plays a role in this process.
The Gulf Stream affects the global carbon budget: the balance between the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from emissions from human activities and its consumption in carbon pools on land or in the ocean.
It is difficult to obtain data from the warm current zone due to high winds and storms.
To fill in the gaps, researchers use a variety of statistical methods and models to assess the impact of the Gulf Stream on ocean absorption of carbon dioxide.
But these results differ from those based on observations by about four billion tons of carbon dioxide.
Now, Saildrone has sent three Explorer autonomous research vessels to explore the Gulf Stream.
Over six months, they must collect observational data that will accurately quantify the role of warm currents in the absorption of carbon dioxide by the ocean and predict its stability in the future.
The Explorer is a seven-meter-long vessel powered by wind and solar energy.
They move at an average speed of up to three knots and can spend more than a year in the open ocean.
A variety of sensors are installed on the robots, including ASVCO2, which measures the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and at the surface of the ocean.
Autonomous vessels have already crossed the Atlantic in both directions.
Several of them are equipped with "hurricane sails", which have already shown their reliability in the mission to study Hurricane Sam.
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