Saildrone begins a five-year Southern Ocean mission

Southern Ocean: The first of four Saildrone Explorer uncrewed sailing vessels left Hobart, Tasmania, on 19 September to start a five-year project led by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Columbia University and Australia's national science agency to measure how much carbon dioxide the Southern Ocean absorbs in winter, which ship-based science has rarely covered. Three more Saildrones are to be deployed, one every three months during 2027, circling Antarctica on routes picked by artificial-intelligence-driven ocean-air models. Adrienne Sutton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the Southern Ocean accounts for about 40 percent of ocean carbon dioxide uptake.