The Nansen arrived at Christmas Island, where it loaded onboard four BioArgo robotic floats. CSIRO scientists Nick Hardman-Mountford and François Dufois programmed the floats in preparation for deployment.
This marks the first time that Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will use these new floats to study this under-sampled part of the Indian Ocean.
"These floats can tell us about the growth of plankton, how much carbon they take up, how much gets used up the food chain and how much gets buried," CSIRO project leader Dr Nick Hardman-Mountford said. "Knowing about this growth is important for predicting how much food the Indian Ocean can produce and how much carbon dioxide it can capture, and will give us a better idea of what keeps the Indian Ocean healthy and productive."
"Despite the importance of the Indian Ocean, we know relatively little about its depths and biological health. The east Indian Ocean alone brings in catches of seven million tons of fish per year.
It contains oil and gas resources, and mineral resources like copper, iron, zinc, silver and gold. And it also drives the climates of its surrounding regions, which make up more than 16 per cent of the world’s entire population. So it's important that we keep track of what's going on below the surface."
The CSIRO infographic below illustrates exactly how the floating bio-robots work. Once they are dropped into the ocean, they descend to 1000 meters and drift for 9 days, before continuing their descent to 2000 metres and activating their sensors.
The floats gather the readings and profiles and breaks to the surface, where all the data is immediately transmitted to a satellite and sent to the nearest research station for analysis.
We’ll be keeping you informed about the entire process.
30/06/2015